Legal news update
Plans to introduce best value tendering (BVT) for criminal defence services in October have been scrapped by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) following fierce opposition from stakeholders.
The LSC says it will sit down with service providers and representative bodies to revamp its BVT plans before it puts a new model out to consultation at the end of this year. The new-look scheme will also be piloted in a few selected areas before it is rolled out countrywide, the LSC confirms.
Carolyn Regan, LSC chief executive, says: “The LSC shares with its service providers the desire of greater certainty and greater stability. We have listened to them and have made a number of changes to our initial plans for BVT as a result. We are putting back the second consultation on BVT to December 2008 so that we have more time to work with providers and their representative bodies.
“Following the second consultation if BVT is adopted it will be piloted and then evaluated before deciding whether or not to go forward with it in other areas of England and Wales. The start date for tendering for any pilot has also been put back to July 2009 at the earliest.”
She adds: “The LSC believes that BVT has the potential to secure high quality criminal legal aid services, best value for taxpayers money and a fair deal for providers.”
The original BVT proposals were shelved after the initial consultation showed overwhelming opposition to the scheme with all the representative bodies who responded being against the initiative.
Law Society legal aid manager, Richard Miller, says: “Given the strength of opposition from legal aid practitioners, we are pleased that the LSC has acknowledged many of the problems posed by BVT and will now give careful consideration to the issues before any further steps to implement it are taken.”
He welcomes the LSC’s decision to pilot the scheme and carry out an evaluation before any national roll-out takes place.
Miller adds: “We hope the evaluation process will be objective and transparent, and that BVT will not proceed nationally if our concerns about it threatening the sustainability of legally aided criminal defence services are borne out.
“The LSC has accepted the need to work a more realistic timetable; the pilot means that should BVT ultimately be given the green light, legal aid providers will now have much more time to prepare for the tendering process.”
The LSC has also set out other developments it intends to make in criminal legal aid over the next year. These include consulting on introducing means testing in the Crown Court and consultation on Crown Court remuneration.
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