High Level Group to Probe Impact on Bar of Competitive Tendering and ‘One Case One Fee’ For Legal Aid Work
19 June 2007
Plans to introduce price-based competitive tendering and a single fee to cover litigators’ and advocates’ work in legal aid cases are to come under scrutiny from an expert group set up by the Bar Council.
The move was announced in the Bar Chairman’s speech to the Bar Council’s 2007 Annual General Meeting in London on Saturday.
In an earlier speech to the Annual Remuneration Conference in May, Geoffrey Vos QC had said that the Government’s proposals appeared to be anti-competitive and would disadvantage the Bar as they would not be able to compete for the proposed block contracts. As Vos pointed out, the Government has delayed essential parts of the Carter reforms: it will not even have introduced a litigator’s graduated fee scheme until January 2008, at the earliest, and nine months late – a system which is untried and untested, and would need time to work effectively. Under the Government’s plans there would be a move to yet other schemes in October 2008. There are widespread concerns that in its desire to cut costs the Government will not just lose control of the system, but actively harm it – as the Constitutional Affairs Committee warned in its April 2007 report.
Geoffrey Vos QC told the Bar Council meeting:
‘The Government has signaled its intention to introduce one case one fee and price competitive tendering for criminal and family legal aid work from October 2008.
‘Through no fault of its own, the Bar will not be in a position to compete on a level-playing field with solicitors for the blocks of cases on offer. No mechanisms can be put in place by that time to enable such competition to take place. Moreover, the market will not have reached a steady state in time for competition to be introduced in October 2008. The market, such as it is, will be in a state of flux. Suppliers will be leaving the market, there may be new entrants, and no clear pattern to the business of providing litigation services on graduated fees will have emerged.
‘To introduce competition for cases at such a stage will create chaos. Many suppliers will be forced out of the market for good. There will be no guarantee of the quality of those that remain. As Lord Carter said in his final report, a single graduated fee should not be introduced until the market has stabilized, and the reform of legal services has permitted the creation of Alternative Business Structures. That day will not yet have arrived by October 2008.’
As a result of these problems, the Bar Council has set up a high-powered working group to examine the issues. Desmond Browne QC will lead the Group, and it has been asked to consult and report by October 2007.
The membership of the group brings barristers together with solicitors, academics and others outside the Bar, to give an external and independent perspective on the merits and demerits of the Government’s plans, while taking full account of the Bar’s concerns.
