145 Treasury Counsel – barristers appointed to act for the Crown or Government departments – have written to the Attorney-General to express concern about proposals to limit legal aid for judicial review.

The letter, which can be read in full here on the Legal Aid Changes site (along with the full list of signatories), said: “As barristers who regularly act for central government departments in public law cases, we are well aware of the ways in which judicial review claims, some meritorious, and others not, can prove a source of frustration for government.

“But we have all had experience of cases which have exposed serious errors in government decision making, often in circumstances where officials and Ministers would not, with hindsight, have wished those errors to have gone uncorrected.”