One of Kent’s top barristers is warning that cuts to the Legal Aid budget will lead to innocent people being convicted.

Oliver Saxby QC – chairman of the Kent Bar Mess – sent a letter to 17 of the region’s MPs asking for a meeting to express his concerns.

Yet only 11 MPs have bothered to reply....and only six have said they were willing to talk to him about the effects of the severe cuts on public justice and their potential effect of their constituents.

And when Mr Saxby – who has appeared in many serious murder trials – managed to arrangeto meet Ashford MP Damian Green – the Government’s Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice - he was given just 20 minutes!

The barrister said: “In the time I was allowed with Mr Green, he didn’t seem able, or willing, to grasp how serious a situation is developing.”

Mr Saxby voiced his concern just minutes after successfully defending a man on an attempted murder charge at Canterbury Crown Court.

He said: “What the Government is planning will put local firms out of business and decimate the pool of advocates able to conduct criminal cases.

“As others have observed, the innocent will end up being convicted and the guilty acquitted. The public’s confidence in the system will be completely lost, “ he warned.

In the past four years “savage cuts to the profession” have led to many advocates claiming the “legal system is now at breaking point”.

Mr Saxby sent letters to 17 Kent MPs – but only Mr Green, Folkestone and Hythe’s Damian Collins, MP for Faversham Hugh Robertson, Laura Sandys, from Thanet, Tunbridge Wells’ Greg Clark and Canterbury’s Julian Brazierreplied “showing any interest in a meeting”.

"The innocent will end up being convicted and the guilty acquitted. The public’s confidence in the system will be completely lost" - Oliver Saxby

Mr Saxby said: “It isn’t that we haven’t had a pay rise since 1997, like many others we have accepted that as inevitable given the current financial climate.

“It is that our rates have actually been cut by 28 per cent in the past few years and in murder cases by 40 per cent. Yet this Government is looking to cut fees even further.”

The Queen’s Counsel added: “I think most people would say there were savings to be made within other departments because on a daily basis we read of failed schemes and broken contracts and money being wasted in other areas.

“And if the Ministry of Justice needs to be hit, then it doesn’t have to be criminal legal aid that is once again eaten into.

“As a start, the Government could start by collecting the £30 million in contributions to Legal Aid which is outstanding!”

Mr Saxby, chairman of the Mess which represents Kent's barristers, said savings could also be made by cutting down the use of expensive expert evidence and wasted hearings and other costs.

“In a murder case I was in recently, the defendants were taken from Winchester Prison via Bournemouth to Winchester Crown Court – which is virtually next door!

“That meant the trail was delayed by a couple of hours – and shows this Government’s plans to taper advocates' daily rates (of pay) unfair and ill-thought out if trials need extra days, “ he added.