HUNDREDS of jobs could be lost in Winchester and throughout Hampshire as a result of a “reckless” government plan, lawyers are warning.

The coalition wants to cut its annual £1billion legal bill by introducing price competition and a tendering process among firms which provide criminal legal aid.

Companies providing the service at police stations would be slashed from 1,400 nationally, to just 400.

Lawyers say jobs will be lost and “thousands” of miscarriages of justice will follow.

Barrister Andy Houston, of Winchester’s Pump Court Chambers, said: “I think there are currently about 45 firms providing crime legal aid services in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The Ministry of Justice want to reduce that to nine — that is a cull.

“The removal of client choice, which is part of the proposals, is in my view, disastrous.”

Currently, those in police custody can request any solicitor on the county’s roster. That choice would be scrapped, and legal experts say human rights complications could follow.

Helen James, head of law at the University of Winchester, said: “The proposals are illiberal, misplaced and ill-conceived.

“It could lead to human rights issues and the absence of access to a fair trial.”

Jamie Gammon, of Gammon Piercy and Gaiger Solicitors, said: “You will not find a criminal lawyer anywhere who will say he will be a criminal lawyer in three years time. A lot of people are looking at retraining.

“Of all the proposals, the most reckless and potentially most dangerous, is the removal of the accused person’s right to choose his own defence team.

“You’re going to have thousands of miscarriages of justice and most of them will go unknown and undetected.

“By all means let the Government take a knife to Legal Aid to secure the inevitable cuts, but the removal of choice plunges the knife deep into the heart of our criminal justice system, the consequences of which will bring terminal decline and irreversible damage.”

Roderick Hursthouse, president of the Hampshire Law Society, said the changes will “adversely affect the ability of solicitors to serve their clients as they have always done”.

There is also concern that the tenders will be won by a handful of ‘heavyweight’ firms.

“I think we’re going to see large organisations — ‘Eddie Stobart’ lawyers — come in,” Mr Houston said.

“The local solicitors firms, as they are now, will have to make large scale redundancies.

“The out-of-area providers who come in should use local lawyers, but I don’t think they will. I can see large firms in London seeing Hampshire as ‘only an hour away’.”

Justice minister, Chris Grayling, claims the changes will save £220 million a year.

In the consultation paper, he said: “For criminal litigation, we are proposing a model of competitive tendering, where solicitors firms must compete to offer the best price they can for work in their local area.

“This will mean successful firms expanding or joining together, to achieve economies of scale which can be passed onto the taxpayer in savings to the public purse.”

Law firms have until June 4 to respond to the proposals, with the tendering process slated for autumn this year.

wesley.rock@ hampshirechronicle.co.uk