LCCSA News, Legal Aid

LCCSA welcomes reversal of botched criminal legal aid contracting

PUBLISHED January 28, 2016
SHARE

The LCCSA today welcomed an announcement from the Lord Chancellor that the Government would not be proceeding with flawed plans for contracting of Duty Solicitor work ( Criminal Legal Aid)
The proposed new contracting regime, launched by the MoJ under previous Chancellor Chris Grayling, has been an absolute fiasco, as was most of what happened during his tenure.
The LCCSA warned that this was a disaster from the outset, and even took the MoJ to Court to try to prevent it's implementation.
Thankfully, Michael Gove has listened where his predecessor did not, and we applaud his brave but sensible decision to put this half-baked scheme out of it's misery.
Sadly there have been adverse consequences for firms and individuals in terms of time and money expended, as well as business and employment decisions being made on false premises.
We need to move on constructively with criminal Legal Aid reeling from the effects of more than 20% cuts in the last few years against a backdrop of no rate increases since the 1990’s. The MOJ will already have achieved the budget savings it wanted two years early, and a review of the effects of cuts and their effect on important efficiency reforms is overdue.
LCCSA President Greg Foxsmith said "We sincerely hope the MoJ learn lessons from this sorry affair, and we are ready and willing to work constructively with Mr Gove to replace "two-tier justice" with sustainable Legal Aid provision that provides Justice for all"

CATEGORIES