Criminal legal aid solution 'alarmingly overdue' says Bar Council Chair
Responding to the MoJ’s announcement of the independent review into Criminal Legal Aid (CLAR2), Chair of the Bar Council, Amanda Pinto QC said:
“It is a relief that details of the independent review into Criminal Legal Aid, have at long last been announced. This has been repeatedly called for across the profession. A lasting solution that will sustain this vital public service is alarmingly overdue. Criminal barristers are crucial to delivering justice, to tackling the mounting backlog of cases and to delivering the Government’s ambitions for law and order. But inordinate delays in starting this review have meant that many have already been forced to leave the profession.
“This Review must report quickly because those that remain cannot last much longer. It is in the interests of witnesses and victims, as well as defendants - in other words, the wider public interest - that there is a robust, sustainable criminal justice system. This review must acknowledge that truth.”
