The lack of training grants for aspiring criminal defence solicitors “risks entrenching the current trajectory toward collapse” of the scheme, an academic has argued.

Dr Susan Rockey, from Exeter University’s law school, said her research showed that lack of funding was “consistently identified as a barrier” to entry, particularly among working-class respondents and those most committed to specialising in criminal legal aid.

This was against a background of most duty solicitors being aged 45 and over.

She gathered responses from 193 law students under the age of 35 who aspired to become criminal legal aid solicitors.

Almost three-quarters were aged from 18 to 24, with the largest group (over 41%) coming from working-class backgrounds. Seven out of 10 were female.

Almost all of the stu

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