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27 March 2008 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7314 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Profession , Costs
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Roger Smith examines the Legal Services Commission's proposals for competitive tendering

“Keep the cost of legal aid down to £2bn. Squeeze the criminal budget. Get the lawyers fighting each other rather than us. Make them bid for their cases.” Thus might Jack Straw, in reality rather more urbane, have instructed Sir Michael Bichard, chair of the Legal Services Commission (LSC). In public speeches, Straw reveals he knows but one thing about legal aid: it costs too much for a man with new prisons to build.

Blind loyalty to external instruction might explain the appalling quality of the consequent paper Best Value Tendering of Criminal Defence Services published by Sir Michael’s commission in 2007. Its standard has been widely criticised, not least in this publication (wsee NLJ, 1 February 2008, p 157 and NLJ, 22 February 2008, p 273). If the commission were interested in raising its game in this area, the Legal Complaints Service has recently supplied a model.

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