Counsel Magazine

Desmond Browne QC, the Chairman of the Bar Council, has criticised proposals to reform legal aid as “cuts in spending, pure and simple”.

In August, the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”) set out its plans to “rebalance” the £2 billion legal aid budget, in its consultation, Legal Aid: Funding Reforms. These include “rationalising” the rate of pay for defence barristers in Crown Court cases so that they are brought more in line with CPS rates, which are on average 23 per cent less.