Sir, The Government may be facing a wide range of problems at the moment but it has evidently lost none of its skill in spinning the facts. The Ministry of Justice proposals (report, Aug 21) to cut the fees paid to defence advocates by up to 23 per cent were presented as correcting an anomaly in order to bring defence fees into line with prosecution fees. They are nothing of the sort and the spin disguises a naked attempt by the Government to go back on its word. The Government may be hoping the general public will have forgotten the facts, but the Bar certainly has not.
By 2007 the fixed payments for defence work in the Crown Court had remained static for nearly ten years so that barristers’ incomes had fallen substantially in real terms. The Lord Chancellor of the time acknowledged barristers’ justified anger at proposals to cut them further, but persuaded us to wait until Lord Carter of Coles had completed his fundamental review of legal aid. He undertook that the Government would implement Lord Carter’s recommendations. In the event Lord Carter recommended that fees for Crown Court work should be increased. The increase was largely funded by redistributing money to junior barristers doing shorter cases from the fees for longer cases and QCs.
The Carter review did not directly affect the fees payable by the CPS to prosecution advocates, thus creating an anomalous disparity with defence fees. The Bar has spent the past two years negotiating with the CPS to remove that anomaly. For the Government now to claim it is reducing defence fees to bring them in line with the prosecution is to turn the facts on their head.
A government, apparently dissatisfied with its own independent review, has gone back on its word and resumed its attack on the criminal Bar by proposing to cut defence fees. Its actions will prevent many talented young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds or ethnic minorities, from becoming or remaining criminal barristers, with ultimate damage to the diversity of the judiciary.
It is high time that the Government acknowledged another of Lord Carter’s findings — that publicly funded advocates do a difficult job well for less than handsome rates of pay. It is time also to stop picking on those dedicated professionals who are not fat cats and aspire only to do a decent job for proper reward.
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The Government may suppose it is simply inflicting pain on the few at the Bar but it is the criminal justice system for the many that will suffer in the long run.
Paul Mendelle, QC
Chairman, Criminal Bar Association