19 July 2012
Working together to build on our successes in reducing payment mistakes
Our efforts in working with providers to reduce common errors in making payment claims won praise recently from the National Audit Office (NAO).
We need to continue with the "significant improvements" which were noted by the head of the NAO, Amyas Morse.
Despite our successes the NAO remains concerned about the level of error rate.
Two of the biggest areas of concern are:
If we can work together on these two issues we can go a long way to improving respect for the integrity of the legal aid fund.
We will look at the issue of 'claiming incorrect fees' in the next issue of LSC Update.
Travel costs above £20 have to be supported by vouchers or similar evidence.
Examples where we did not have the necessary documentation included:
In addition to these issues in one case we looked at an advocate had incorrectly claimed for travel expenses to a Crown Court where a local chambers already existed.
In another instance an advocate had over-claimed on mileage because we could only allow for the distance to the nearest chambers to be claimed.
These may seem trivial matters and we acknowledge we have a role to play in ensuring the necessary documentation is submitted as appropriate.
But even small payments which are disallowed because they are not properly evidenced can have a significant impact on our error rates.
It is vital all providers continue to submit all the necessary documentary evidence to support the work claimed for in their submissions.
This applies as much to CDS7s as it does to AGFS claims. For AGFS it remains important for there to be supporting evidence for Pages of Prosecution Evidence.
LSC Website: Standard Criminal Contract Part B
LSC Website: Criminal Bills Assessment Manual
LSC Website: Advocate Graduated Fee Scheme Guidance 2011
LSC Website: Litigator Graduated Fee Scheme Guidance February 2011