Policy

11 March, 2008

Law Society issues response to BVT in criminal legal aid

Many firms will 'go out of business'

The Law Society has warned that many firms could go out of business, in their response to the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) consultation into best value tendering (BVT) for criminal legal aid. 

Commenting on the response, the Law Society's legal aid manager, Richard Miller said -

'The LSC are the monopoly buyer of these services, which prevents firms from bidding at a market price. They either win the contract or go out of business.

We are concerned that firms will make unduly low bids, having never tendered before, and then find they are unable to deliver. Under the current proposals, those firms unsuccessful in tendering will no longer be there to take up the slack from successful bidders who feel the strain.'

Historically BVT tendering has been implemented to procure public contracts with a single supplier or lead supplier, to provide a service which can be reasonably quantified. However, the Law Society point out that the volume of work in criminal defence legal services is difficult to quantify.

Richard Miller added that -

 'The current proposals on the table leave a lot of questions unanswered. How can firms place a financial value on these services in the bidding process if there is no way of predicting the volume of work under the contracts?

The LSC's proposals also fail to explain how quality will be ensured. We hope that we can work with the LSC to help shape the landscape of criminal defence legal services in a way that suits the profession and, ultimately, service users

For more information see the Law Society press release Society says current proposals for BVT are unworkable.

See also the related rightsnet policy news stories - 




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