Press Release
LSC Moves to Ensure Value From Criminal Legal Aid
28 January 2005
The Legal Services Commission today published proposals to introduce competitive tendering for law firms covering ‘criminal lower’ cases in London.
The proposals would introduce greater quality assurance for clients, while delivering better value from public funding of legal aid work in the police station and at the magistrates’ court. The process will take a two-stage approach, focusing first on quality and then on price.
In the proposed first stage, firms would be assessed on the quality of advice they have previously provided and outcomes they have achieved for clients.
Firms that meet the quality requirements will be invited to bid a price per case for a percentage of available duty solicitor work. Successful bidders would be paid the agreed price for each case, replacing the current system of set hourly rates. Firms failing the initial quality assessments would need to a pass an independent peer review to be allowed to bid.
The national criminal legal aid bill reached £1.1 billion last year. Economic research commissioned by the LSC supports our view that competitive tendering would be a more efficient system for managing quality and price in areas of over-supply.
Legal aid spending on criminal lower cases in London last year was around £110 million. Approximately 500 firms hold LSC contracts for this work, with about a third of these suppliers billing less than £50K a year each.
It is expected that many firms will see competitive tendering as an opportunity to expand their business, and the commission has been careful to structure the proposals so there is no disadvantage to small firms wishing to do this. Firms that are successful in the tender process will have greater assurance of income to assist their business planning.
LSC Executive Director for Service Design, Jonathan Lindley, said: "Criminal defence is a fundamental legal right. However, when this is publicly funded we need to ensure that the taxpayer is getting the best value for money, whilst at the same time guaranteeing clients have quality advice and representation.
"We appreciate that competitive tendering will be a new experience for many of our suppliers, and we have organised workshops and information sessions to support them and help their business planning.
"Tendering is, of course, common practice in other areas and works well for procurement of many public services.
"The legal aid budget is not unlimited, and ultimately we can help more people if the unit cost of helping them is lower. This is particularly important as the rising expenditure on criminal legal aid is putting pressure on the community legal service and civil expenditure."
Under the proposals, there would be less need to monitor ‘inputs’ such as time (through cost audits). The LSC would focus more on measuring quality of advice and outcomes achieved for clients. The LSC is already working with the Law Society, the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and independent practitioners to develop these measures. To minimise bureaucracy, the quality measures will be introduced without the need for any new reporting procedures or changes to how firms keep records.
The LSC is confident that by assessing outcomes achieved for clients and case files, most firms will be able to demonstrate compliance without the need for peer review.
Firms who do not meet the initial quality assessment but pass the peer review would be allowed to bid for a contract. Firms failing a peer review would be offered a second and if they were unsuccessful again, they would be ineligible to bid.
Views on the proposals are being sought during a three-month consultation. Copies of the consultation paper, Improving Value for Money for Publicly Funded Criminal Defence Services in London, have been sent to all holders of LSC criminal or civil contracts, as the intention is to open the tender to firms currently operating outside the capital. The papers are due to arrive with them from 28 January, and will also be available on the Criminal Consulations page of the LSC website from the same date. The plan outlined in the paper proposes beginning a tender process in August. The earliest date for new contracts to start would be January, 2006.
Further Information
The LSC’s Contract Design Team is available to answer queries: phone 020 7759 0307 or email londoncompetitivetendering@legalservices.gov.uk
Media information
Gary Spink, 020 7759 0493
Richard Shand, 020 7759 0491
Note to Editors
Business Link for London is organising a series of free seminars in February and March to help firms prepare for competitive tendering. Firms can call 0845 60 23 709 for further information.
Last updated: 28 December 2006