Constitutional Affairs written question – answered at on 5 July 2005.
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the average cost of a (a) public defender and (b) private legal aid lawyer was in the last period for which figures are available, broken down by region.
Private solicitors firms and barristers carry out a wide variety of public funded work and are paid from different schemes within the Criminal Defence Service (CDS). It is therefore not possible to provide an average cost. However, an independent research programme has been continually evaluating the progress of the Public Defender Service(PDS) since its inception. The results of the research, including a full assessment of the cost of the scheme in comparison to private criminal defence practitioners, is due to be published in autumn 2005.
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