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Legal Aid

Does the Minister not realise what concern there is outside this Chamber about the bidding process? Criminal legal aid solicitors’ fees were last increased in 2001, and civil practitioners were last given a 2.5 per cent. increase in 2004, which was meant to reflect increases for the previous four years. I may be being simplistic, but it seems to me that in any bidding process the cheapest bid normally succeeds and that will often be at variance with securing the best-quality advice.