*/
THE Bar Council has voiced its concerns over government plans to cut legal aid for vulnerable children and families, saying that cuts of between 20% and 30% being proposed by the Ministry of Justice would risk miscarriages of family justice.
The warning, supported by a statement from the leading children’s charity the NSPCC, follows a recent report from the Family Law Bar Association, which found that expert family barristers are being driven away from their work to represent the interests of vulnerable women and children as a result of repeated cuts in legal aid pay.
The study, by Dr Debora Price and Anne Laybourne of King’s College London’s King’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy examined in detail over 5,000 cases undertaken by more than 1,600 barristers.
The Work of the Family Bar paints a picture of a profession close to breaking point as it struggles to cope with increasingly complex caseloads, the pressure to protect the interests of vulnerable clients, disruptive patterns of work and repeated, demoralising cuts in pay.
Desmond Browne QC, Chairman of the Bar Council, said: ‘Government cuts in funding are driving skilled advocates out of publicly funded family work, leaving the most vulnerable in society at risk of serious miscarriages of justice and abuse. No child should be hazarded in this way.
The deep commitment of family barristers, many of whom are working at breaking point, has for too long been taken for granted. We naturally welcome the fact that children’s charities are now supporting our arguments. Hopefully the Government will now start to take notice of what the public interest requires. Barristers should not be asked to do family work at rates which are uneconomic, and which will hit women and BME practitioners especially hard.’
The study, by Dr Debora Price and Anne Laybourne of King’s College London’s King’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy examined in detail over 5,000 cases undertaken by more than 1,600 barristers.
The Work of the Family Bar paints a picture of a profession close to breaking point as it struggles to cope with increasingly complex caseloads, the pressure to protect the interests of vulnerable clients, disruptive patterns of work and repeated, demoralising cuts in pay.
Desmond Browne QC, Chairman of the Bar Council, said: ‘Government cuts in funding are driving skilled advocates out of publicly funded family work, leaving the most vulnerable in society at risk of serious miscarriages of justice and abuse. No child should be hazarded in this way.
The deep commitment of family barristers, many of whom are working at breaking point, has for too long been taken for granted. We naturally welcome the fact that children’s charities are now supporting our arguments. Hopefully the Government will now start to take notice of what the public interest requires. Barristers should not be asked to do family work at rates which are uneconomic, and which will hit women and BME practitioners especially hard.’
THE Bar Council has voiced its concerns over government plans to cut legal aid for vulnerable children and families, saying that cuts of between 20% and 30% being proposed by the Ministry of Justice would risk miscarriages of family justice.
The warning, supported by a statement from the leading children’s charity the NSPCC, follows a recent report from the Family Law Bar Association, which found that expert family barristers are being driven away from their work to represent the interests of vulnerable women and children as a result of repeated cuts in legal aid pay.
The Chair of the Bar reports back
By Kem Kemal, CEO, Henry Dannell
By BSK Financial Planning
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs
Susie Griffin on the admin that keeps barristers from billable work
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Kick off your career at the Bar Council’s Pupillage Fair this October – it’s one of the most valuable opportunities for aspiring barristers, says Amelia Clegg
Join us on Saturday 21 November 2026 at Leeds Beckett University and see for yourself why the North continues to be an exceptional place to build a career at the Bar
The golden age of advocacy? David Langwallner pays homage to the filmic if contentious barrister Sir Edward Carson and some of his contemporaries
Henry Fingerhut outlines what the Bar Standards Board AI guidance means for early career barristers
Not yet, says Jacob Turner. Regulation, unlike the technology itself, is a domain the legal profession can still control
