They will also decline to act where an accused has no solicitor and cannot represent themselves — and will not take part in a virtual custody pilot, Scottish Legal News reports.

The Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA) also said its members will withdraw from a new scheme dedicated to prosecuting domestic abuse cases at Glasgow Sheriff Court, if necessary.

The SSBA is seeking an annual review of legal aid rates. At the last round of strike action, the government agreed to a 10 per cent increase in fees and committed to an annual review.

The rise was, however, cancelled out by inflation, the SSBA said — and the annual review has not taken place.

Simon Brown, president of the SSBA, told The Herald: “The boycott was in place in every court, and I’ve not heard of anyone not supporting it.

“This one doesn’t have an immediate impact, as an accused can appear himself and plead not guilty at a first appearance, but he can’t conduct his own trial, so we’ll start to see an impact in about six weeks time when the first trials start to come around.

“One of the reasons we picked this particular action is that delay should give the government time to respond, so far complete radio silence.”

He added: “We are desperately trying to draw the government’s attention to the perilous state the criminal defence bar is in.

“With only one criminal lawyer available for roughly every 4,500 adults in Scotland, the system is at breaking point. The lack of time to prepare means trials are often delayed, inconveniencing both witnesses and accused.

“With legal aid rates at about half of where they should be if they had kept pace with inflation, these delays further dilute the fees these cases attract, leading to more and more criminal lawyers leaving for better paid areas of law.

“The only reason this system is functioning is because we are working flat out just to keep up.”