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The Solicitors Regulatory Authority should be able to process would-be alternative business structures wanting to bid for the new criminal legal aid ‘super-contracts’ in as little as three months, it has told MPs. The Bar Standards Board was more cautious about its regulation, however.

The Ministry of Justice today showed the first sign of cracking under the weight of pressure over its plans to reform criminal legal aid, with the Lord Chancellor ditching the plan to end client choice of solicitor.

The Bar Standards Board has waded into the controversy over government plans to introduce price competitive tendering in criminal work by warning that it risks causing irreparable harm to the credibility of the criminal justice system and incentivises lawyers to encourage guilty pleas.

Plans to grow a criminal legal aid firm that has just received its alternative business structure licence – potentially through external investment – are on hold pending the outcome of the government’s current reform plans, according to its head of legal.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has strongly criticised the government’s plan to deny defendants the right to choose their own solicitor under price competitive tendering, with new data showing that legally aided clients are more likely to shop around than any other.