The Law Society has today published its full response to the Ministry of Justice's consultation paper 'Transforming Legal Aid'.
PCT proposals are unworkable
The Law Society has outlined why the government's plans to introduce price-competitive tendering (PCT) for criminal legal aid are unworkable.
We have warned the government that these flawed proposals are likely to cause catastrophic damage to the criminal justice system and will seriously undermine the reputation of the English legal system.
We point out that the proposals will:
- unlawfully restrict client choice
- diminish the quality of justice
- be impractical to achieve in the timescale
- be uneconomic both for existing firms and new entrants
Our response includes independent economic analysis from Deloitte that shows it is not possible to deliver what the Ministry of Justice is demanding for the price and in the proposed timeframe.
We are calling on the government to consider alternative approaches.
Further erosion of civil legal aid
We have also set out our serious concerns about proposals that will further erode legal aid provision for civil and prison law matters, including:
- a discriminatory residence test
- restrictions on judicial reviews
- further scope cuts to prison law
- 20 per cent fee cut in child care cases