The government has announced a review of legal aid after the cost of the scheme rose to a record £2 billion per year.

The review, announced yesterday by David Lammy, the constitutional affairs minister, as he published a Criminal Defence Service Bill, is intended to shave £70 million from the criminal legal aid budget by introducing means-testing of defendants.

Officials from the prime minister's strategy unit will work with the Home Office, Crown Prosecution Service, judges and the legal profession on the study.