A Justice Minister has rejected calls to reveal how much public money was wasted on abandoned changes to legal aid, claiming it would be a "waste of time and effort".

Shailesh Vara insisted the Government wants to "move ahead" after Justice Secretary Michael Gove scrapped his predecessor Chris Grayling's proposals to overhaul the way legal aid contracts are awarded to duty solicitors.

He spoke after Labour called on the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to refer itself to the National Audit Office over the latest in a series of U-turns and demanded an apology to those adversely affected.

Asking an urgent question, shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter said the abandoned plans were "an appalling use of taxpayers' money" that had presented an existential threat to the legal system.

The Labour frontbencher said: "How much public money and Civil Service time has been spent on the aborted tendering processes, the court cases and the consultations in the past three years?

"Will you refer your own department to the National Audit Office so it can be independently investigated?

"Will you apologise to the firms which have closed, laid off staff, or cut salaries faced with losing contracts?

"And also to those who have spent thousands of pounds bidding and winning contracts and in many cases taking on extra staff who they will not now need?

"Indeed, will you go further and see what assistance can be given to those firms?

"Will you remove the remaining uncertainty over the second fee cut? Having imposed it and now decided to remove it for at least a year, what is the timescale and criteria you will use for future fee levels?

"Finally, for today, given the NAO and Public Accounts Committee's scathing criticisms of the civil legal aid cuts ... will he bring forward the review into the Laspo (Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders) Act?

"This has been an appalling use of taxpayers' money, it's been an existential threat to the fundamental part of our legal system and it's caused uncertainty, failure and distress to thousands of hard-working small businesses the length of this country."

Mr Vara replied: " You know full well that all shades of government on this side and that side, when they are in government if they listen to people and if they feel a decision needs to be changed then they do make that change.

"And in the same way that the Labour government took decision to change policies, so too we have taken that decision.

"I don't recall previous governments wasting time and effort trying to calculate measures when they have made a change of direction.

"So as far as we're concerned this is a decision that's been welcomed by the profession, we're pleased about that, we want to look forward and move ahead."

Mr Gove scrapped the proposals in the face of the face of a series of 99 separate legal challenges.

The so-called "dual contracting" system faced opposition from solicitors who feared it would limit the numbers of firms able to join the duty legal aid rota.

At the same time barristers warned that the commercial plans being drawn up by some firms of solicitors lead to a reduction in choice and quality.

Alongside the change Mr Gove also suspended a further cut in legal aid fees - introduced last year - for 12 months from April.

Mr Gove's announcements were the latest in a series of reversals of policies brought in by his predecessor.

He has already closed down a commercial arm of the MoJ which ran at a loss of £1.1 million and was bidding to run the prison training service in Saudi Arabia, despite the country's record on human rights.

Prior to that, Mr Grayling's plans for "secure colleges" for young offenders were unceremoniously ditched while restrictions on access to books for prisoners were eased.

On legal aid, Mr Gove has already shelved previously planned cuts to barristers' fees while a scheme to outsource the collection of fines by the courts has also been axed.

The controversial criminal courts charge was also scrapped by Mr Gove in December.