England: Criminal barristers desert profession

Jo Sidhu QC

Lawyers told The Times that low legal aid rates and delays caused by the pandemic have led to an exodus from the profession.

The Criminal Bar Association said 22 per cent of junior criminal barristers have left since 2016 and that specialist chambers had reduced their tenancies by a third.

It added that, in the past year, 11 per cent of junior barristers had abandoned the profession and that QCs were leaving too: their numbers in the criminal courts have fallen by half over five years to about 130.

“Crime hasn’t paid for the criminal barristers who prosecute and defend,” said Jo Sidhu QC, the chairman of the association.

He added that the Ministry of Justice had underspent by about £440 million as a result of court delays prompted by the lockdowns.

The CBA said many defections of criminal barristers to the Crown had been caused by a decline in work stemming from social-distancing measures.

Mr Sidhu said: “It would be deeply unfair and disastrous for victims and defendants alike if the government pocketed the near half a billion pounds of savings it has reaped from two years of its cuts-induced trial delays exacerbated by Covid, leaving the criminal justice system starved of funding and operated by a skeleton service made up of the few criminal advocates who are left.”