Transforming Legal Aid: Crime duty contracts

Closed 15 Oct 2014

Opened 24 Sep 2014

Contact

LegalAidReformMoJ@justice.gsi.gov.uk

Results updated 10 Dec 2014

We received 3,942 responses to the Transforming Legal Aid: Crime Duty Contracts consultation, mostly from legal aid providers.

The document sets out the Government response to consultation.

In summary the key decisions are:

  • to tender 527 duty provider contracts, two more than originally proposed in February.
  • to introduce payment for travelling times in excess of 1.5 hours and to relax the office requirements in the split procurement areas.  
  • the tender for the Duty Provider Contracts will also open on 27 November, and will remain open until 29 January. Services under both new contracts will start on 01 October 2015.
  • subject to the additional consideration we announced in March 2014, it remains our intention to implement the second fee reduction in July 2015.

The Legal Aid Agency tender website for the Duty Work Provider contracts can be found here. 

 

Files:

Overview

Earlier this year the Ministry of Justice, following detailed engagement with the Law Society, published proposals to help create a more sustainable legal aid market in criminal litigation.

As previously announced, we have allowed an unlimited number of own client contracts for providers who meet the required quality standards. We also stated our intention to offer the highest number of duty work contracts recommended - 525 - following specialist research from Otterburn Legal Consulting LLP and KPMG LLP.

We are now consulting on the reports undertaken by Otterburn Legal Consulting and KPMG (including MoJ's response to the analysis), the findings/assumptions used in their analysis, as well as the number of duty provider contracts that should be tendered in the forthcoming procurement exercise by Otterburn Legal Consulting and KPMG.

Audiences

  • Legal professionals
  • Legal professional bodies

Interests

  • Criminal justice
  • Legal aid
  • Access to justice