Clause 1 - Extent of duty to fund advice and assistance
Criminal Defence Service (Advice and Assistance) Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Mr David Lock (Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department; Wyre Forest, Labour)
It is interesting that the questions that I have been asked are, with the greatest respect to hon. Members, at best tangential to the Bill. However, I admire the ingenuity that has been employed in asking such questions, and I shall try to answer them.
I am not today in a position to give the exact number of solicitors who are presently signed up for the Legal Services Commission contract. The issue is not how many have signed up to date, but how many will have signed by 2 April. The hon. Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr. Burnett) asked how negotiations are proceeding, and I can tell him that they have concluded. They have been complex negotiations, based on a comprehensive research programme that was undertaken on the commission's behalf with respect to the contracting pilot that it has been running for two years with 70 criminal defence firms.
The research has been undertaken for the commission by a team led by Professor Lee Bridges of the university of Warwick. The research report was published by the commission in August, alongside the draft contracts for consultation. In addition, of course, the commission has a large, well developed and comprehensive network of contacts with criminal defence lawyers and their national representative organisations. It has been discussing the details of the contracts with them. It is true that we based the draft contract on the research, but it has been amended in various ways through negotiations. The negotiations are finished and the final form of the contract is now available for solicitors to sign.
As to points of tension, remuneration issues are clearly important to solicitors. The contract provides for an increase in remuneration of a global amount of about 7.25 per cent. As money is being paid under contract, rather than under the old system, it is not possible to make an exact comparison of like with like. However, the Government believe that the settlement is a fair and reasonable one for the important work that is being undertaken.
The second issue that the hon. Gentlemen raised—