- A restructuring of the Criminal Defence market by awarding larger contracts to a smaller number of bigger providers to cut costs. This may reduce the number of public funded criminal defence firms by up to 75 per cent.
- Face to face police station advice funded by the public purse may be removed altogether or it may be that solicitors will be funded the same for telephone advice and face to face advice. This would cause solicitors to consider whether they attend the police station for any individual case as they will be paid the same for not doing so.
- The very high cost cases, such as fraud cases where the trial last for longer than 8 weeks may see swinging cuts in lawyers fees where the defendant is represented under Legal Aid.
- Judicial Reviews in Human Rights cases are likely to be hit.
- The sentencing power of the Magistrates Courts could be increased from 6 to 12 months to reduce the number of the more expensive Crown Court cases
It will be for the Public Expenditure Committee set up by the new Government to consider how best to attain the required cuts in expenditure. A spending review will be published for consultation in September or October 2010.
However the cuts are made, public funded criminal defence provision will be spread substantially more thinly across the country. The proposed cuts will represent a 25 per cent reduction in the total spend for civil and criminal Legal Aid.