Legal Aid Procurement Review – terms of reference
1. These are the terms of reference for the production of a plan to implement a package of reforms to the way publicly funded legal advice and representation are procured by the state. The review and resulting plan will be produced by Lord Carter in agreement with the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor and by early 2006.
2. The review will consider the means by which to deliver the Government’s vision, set out in A Fairer Deal for Legal Aid, for procuring publicly funded legal services, particularly criminal defence services. This will be presented as a plan for delivering a procurement system that achieves maximum value for money and control over spending whilst ensuring quality and the fairness of the justice system.
3. The reforms will also encourage a more open and responsive market, share risks between supplier and purchaser, and improve the way the state engages with lawyers when procuring legal services.
4. To achieve these objectives the plan will set out how to deliver the best way of buying and delivering legal services, in particular criminal defence services for high cost cases, that:
(a) matches the right advice and representation to the issue at stake
(b) meets specified quality standards
(c) incentivises swift conclusions and minimises costs to other parties
(d) encourages a diverse and competitive market of lawyers and others offering
advice and advocacy that helps deliver quality and just outcomes for best
value
(e) avoids frequent and piecemeal direct fees negotiations between the purchaser
and individual sectors within the legal services market.
5. The review will take in to account the current programme of moving to fixed or graduated fees (in particular schemes for graduated fees for cracked trial and guilty pleas and for Crown Court litigators) and the proposals for competitive tendering for solicitors in London. This review will also fulfil the commitment that the DCA gave in a letter to the Bar dated 24 June 2004 to review the current criminal graduated fee scheme and the very high cost criminal cases scheme.
6. The review will focus on the options for new procurement arrangements set out in A Fairer Deal for Legal Aid (block contracting, price competition, and lead supplier) but may also contain other reforms to supplement, modify or replace these options in order to produce an effective overall package.
7. The plan will be grounded in a detailed analysis of the impact of the final reforms. This analysis will include:
(a) an assessment of how effective each reform and/or combination of reforms
will be at achieving the overall objectives, whilst ensuring quality
(b) the likely efficiency gains and the timescale over which they will be
achieved
(c) the impact of a new procurement regime on the supply of criminal defence
services, the wider legal market, the way the professions are structured,
the way the CPS operate and the operation of the entire justice system
(d) the impact on the various agencies e.g. the Legal Services Commission
and Her Majesty’s Courts Service.
8. From this analysis the plan will give a route map of how to deliver the reform package and how that will achieve the overall objectives. Included in this route map will be the action needed to promote changes to the quality, structure and performance of the market and its constituent professions (in the context of wider legal service reforms). The plan will also include mitigating action to be taken to address any adverse affects on quality and performance that may result from changes.