In an interview with The Times, Lord Falconer of Thoroton said that there was no more money for the £2.1 billion legal aid scheme, and that redistribution among barristers was the answer to the crisis.

He also urged barristers not to disrupt the courts by refusing legal aid work this autumn as many have threatened to do. Lord Falconer said that he would resist any such action and keep the criminal justice system going. He declined to say what steps he would take but one measure could be to draft in other lawyers, perhaps from the Crown Prosecution Service, to ensure that defendants were not unrepresented.

“We need a solution to the problem of legal aid and the problem, as I see it, is that we are spending a disproportionately high amount of money on the very big cases,” Lord Falconer said. “One per cent of the cases are taking up 50 per cent of the Crown Court budget. So we need to begin to address this problem and the way to do so is by producing an enduring settlement.”

Money had to be focused “where most needed”, he said. “Yes, on the big cases but not as much as at present. And more money for the shorter cases and for civil legal aid, where spending has gone down significantly over time.”

His comments come as Lord Carter of Coles is about to embark on a review of how the legal aid scheme can be modernised. But there is mounting anger at the Bar that a review of the fees in most trials — those lasting up to ten days — that was promised a year ago will now be part of the bigger inquiry and not report until the start of next year.

Lord Falconer said that he had not broken his pledge and the review was simply starting this month rather than in May, with a resulting delay of only “four to five months” because of the bigger remit.

He accepted that young barristers, who could end up earning £46 for going to court if a trial failed to go ahead, had a case and that their fees needed to be reformed. But he hoped that any action by individual barristers would not go ahead. “If it did, we would obviously have to keep the criminal justice system going. It would be far better if people rallied round to find a long-term solution.”

Lord Falconer said: “There is no more money, no deals for barristers. My message is, ‘Co-operate with Carter to seek a solution’. In that way I hope we can make a secure base for the future — because I am absolutely determined there must be a strong independent Bar and, in particular, a strong independent Criminal Bar.”

The action over criminal legal aid fees comes as the Lord Chancellor recently disclosed that the legal aid budget was overspent by £130 million.

The legal aid scheme, he said, had to bear its part in finding that money. Some £7 million would have to be found in the first year and £15 million to £16 million the second year, which was small compared with the overspend.

That overspend was not anyone’s fault, Lord Falconer said. But it was not just a question of more cases going through the system and of cases lasting longer. Between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 the money per Crown Court case paid to barristers had risen 79 per cent. Even after taking into account inflation, cases lasting longer and more cases coming through, the “overall take of the Bar has risen by 20 per cent”, he said.

The money had gone on the very big cases. “That is something that needs to be addressed and not by legal aid alone,” he said, or by allowing money to go “up and up”.

Long-running costly trials have included the recent Jubilee Line fraud trial, which collapsed with a £60 million costs bill, including a legal aid bill of £13 million.

Another big fraud trial, a prosecution of five people by Revenue & Customs, collapsed last month with the estimated cost to the taxpayer of £6 million in legal aid and total costs put at £65 million.

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO