Something peculiar is happening at criminal courts across England and Wales this morning. Barristers from are staging an unprecedented walk out in protest at Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s plan to trim a further £220 million from the Legal Aid budget. Barristers in wigs and gowns are protesting at at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and at Crown Courts including the Old Bailey.
Since 2010 the Ministry of Justice’s budget has been cut by £1.3 billion, with a further £148 million to be cut over the rest of the parliament. The government asserts that the Legal Aid bill is too high. Since the coalition took power, the bill has reduced by £264 million – about 20 per cent of the total. It’s fallen by almost a third over the past 10 years. The bill for the most serious QC-led cases has fallen by 46 per cent since 2007. The criminal bar complains that stripping a further £220 million from the Legal Aid fund – less than the cost of two miles of the HS2 railway – will leave the independent criminal bar unsustainable.
The government has been guilty of misdirection: in October Grayling was caught out overstating a QC’s fee for a 60-day trial by almost seven times, but in December the new Justice Minister Lord Faulks recognised the criminal bar as ‘a profession in crisis.
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