The newly-reformed QC regime's self-financing funding model is coming under pressure, it has emerged, following a shortfall in projected applications.

The head of the QC appointments secretariat, David Watts, has conceded that the 39% rise in the cost of applying for silk, which this year saw application fees rise from £1,800 to £2,500, was in part a response to a shortfall in applications.

Watts said: "Our assumption was that there would be 500 applications [in 2006]. In fact, there were 443, so there was a costs shortfall. Being the first year, we had less information to go on than we have now."

The target was set despite the number of applicants under the old silk regime – which was suspended in 2003 – running substantially under 500 in the last two years in which it operated under the direct authority of the Lord Chancellor's Department.

QC Appointments, the body that governs the silk system, has so far refused to comment on the number of applications it has received this year.

However, the original 15 January deadline for applications was put back to 29 January, and some clerks and barristers have warned that the rising costs could further deter applications. Some argue that the 2006 silk round was artificially boosted by the award's suspension.

Essex Court senior clerk David Grief said: "There will be less this year than 2005-06, as last year was catch-up time."

Hardwicke Building chief executive Ann Buxton said: "It is not a price-sensitive market, but in the interests of justice for people not in high-earning fields such as family law and immigration, it would be an inequity to put prices up. They should, in fact, be capped."