Ulster Unionist MLA Michael Copeland has demanded curbs of the amount of money spent on legal aid in Northern Ireland.
The East Belfast MLA, who represents his Party on the Public Accounts Committee, was speaking following the publication of a PAC report titled “Managing Criminal Legal Aid.”
Mr Copeland said;
“As the Public Accounts Committee investigated the amount of money being spent on legal aid in Northern Ireland I was shocked at what I saw.
It is an incontrovertible fact that spending on criminal legal aid has spiralled out of control over the last ten years with no similar increase in the number of cases being dealt with.
Over £400 million has been spent on Criminal legal aid in the past ten years and I regret to say that the legal profession have been exploiting loopholes in the system to their own financial advantage.
The Committee is now calling on the Justice Minister David Ford to take urgent steps to stop this gravy train for lawyers and restore some measure of transparency and public confidence in the system.”