Justice written question – answered at on 17 July 2013.
Nick Brown
Labour, Newcastle upon Tyne East
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what mechanisms his Department has in place to ensure quality of service during contract periods for those firms awarded legal aid contracts.
Jeremy Wright
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice
Legal aid contracts are only awarded to legal services providers that can meet the Legal Aid Agency's requirements, which are then formalised in the contract between the LAA and the contracted organisation.
There are several ways in which the LAA ensures quality of service by providers. These are as follows:
1. Attaining Quality Standards
Before being awarded a legal aid contract with the Legal Aid Agency an organisation must either hold or commit to achieving one of the recognised specialist advice level quality standards (i.e. currently the Specialist Quality Mark, Mediation Quality Mark or the Law Society's Lexcel Practice Management Standard), prior to the contract start date. The organisation must ensure that they maintain the quality standard throughout the life of the LAA contract.
2. Supervisor requirement
It is a requirement that any contracted organisation has an individual who has a sufficiently high level of expertise to be considered a supervisor for the purpose of the LAA contract. It is the Supervisor's responsibility to look at their organisation's casework, training and development needs, and to ensure that quality standards are maintained in line with the LAA contract. Supervisors must have experience in the relevant category of law to which the contract relates, and should be accredited by regulatory bodies where appropriate.
3. Peer Review
The LAA uses Peer Review as the mechanism by which it monitors the quality of advice provided by contracted legal services providers. Peer Review is a quality assessment tool which directly measures the quality of advice and legal work carried out by legal aid providers and is delivered through targeted assessments, random assessments and gateway assessments. Peer Review is administered by the LAA and carried out by experienced legal aid practitioners are appointed through an open selection process.
Yes1 person thinks so
No3 people think not
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