It was proposed that the LSC offer a new rota for Extradition only work in City of Westminster. Eligibility of this scheme will be the same as the City of Westminster but membership would be voluntary.  The hope was that a voluntary scheme would ensure that only those that felt confident in dealing with extradition would have to deal with such cases. 

The court has confirmed that they will require a single Duty Solicitor Monday to Friday for extradition matters and five Duty Solicitors Monday to Friday for other matters. Saturdays and Bank Holidays will remain unchanged from the current rota. 

The City of Westminster rota would therefore be split into 2 rotas, to be published mid September to start mid October. 

The LSC's response

The LSC received responses from 12 firms who are on the City Of Westminster rota, all of which were broadly supportive of the proposal.

It did receive one suggestion to split the rotas asking Duty Solicitors to choose between the two rotas, thereby providing a core of specialists who would only be on the Extradition rota. Whilst this is an option and might be a proposal for the future it was felt that would be a step too far at this stage and would require further consultations if the problem persists. 

The LSC will therefore set up a new voluntary Duty Solicitor rota for City of Westminster. This will start on 14th October 2012 and continue until further notice.