Urgent Consideration of the Duty Contracts Tender Documentation
Statements and analysis
Since the publication of the Duty Contracts tender documentation we have issued an initial response.
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/stories/moj-announcement-on-duty-crime-contracts/
Here is how it was covered in the Gazette.
We quickly followed this up with our analysis of the documentation to support our members’ consideration.
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/stories/analysis-of-the-duty-crime-tender-documentation/
We sent this out as a Legal Aid Update and it also features in Professional Update this week. We have also written to members of the Criminal Litigation Accreditation Scheme (CLAS) with links to this information and to inform them that we will not be charging for the renewal of CLAS membership this year.
Events and on line support
A full series of free events in England and Wales will commence in January 2015 and details will be published shortly.
The first event will take place on Monday 15 December. A recording of this event will be made available online the next day.
These events will explain the details, what they may mean for our members and what the Law Society is saying and doing about it. We will talk about what is likely to happen over the next few months, and the issues members need to think about in planning their future.
Due to potential high demand, members must register for this event before registration closes 48 hours prior to the start of the event.
Wider developments
You may have seen that the Public Accounts Committee were yesterday strongly critical of the way the LASPO cuts were implemented without an evidence base or assessment of impact on other public spending.
Future steps
Our Council meeting is next week and in advance of this our Access to Justice Committee, Criminal Law Committee and our Legal Affairs and Policy Board will be considering the implications of the tender process and the way forward.
We will continue to keep you posted about our activity to support members and our consideration with practitioner groups of further steps we can take during the tender period.