Dual contracting: Lord Falconer chases government over wasted tax payer money

Labour's shadow Lord Chancellor has referred the Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) scrapped criminal legal aid proposals to the National Audit Office (NAO) for investigation.

Last week the justice secretary announced plans to cancel his department's controversial 'dual contracting' scheme, described as the most extensive public procurement process ever attempted, following widespread opposition from both solicitors and barristers.

Responding at the time as Labour's shadow justice secretary, Lord Falconer said that while the announcement was welcome, the government must 'now come clean about how much public money has been wasted' so that ministers can be held fully accountable.

Writing to Sir Amyas Morse, the comptroller and auditor general of the NAO, Falconer said that the government's 'significant change in policy' had taken place very late in the day, which would have had consequences for many legal aid firms.

'Not only will many criminal law firms have already taken decisions either to expand or to cut staff based on their success in the bidding process, but much time and expenditure is likely to have already been spent by the MoJ and the [Legal Aid Agency],' he wrote.

'In addition, the government has so far ignored calls - by the Law Society and the Labour party - for an independent review of the procurement process,' continued Falconer.

'I hope you will agree that the NAO has an important role to play in ensuring that the interests of the taxpayers have been properly safeguarded in this case.'

A referral to the NAO will likely make uncomfortable news for the MoJ just days after it published the findings from an investigation into Just Solutions International (JSi), the commercial arm of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

JSi aimed to improve justice systems across the world by selling products and consultancy services. However, in September 2015 the MoJ announced the closure of JSi after the government pulled out of a controversial deal to export prison expertise to Saudi Arabia.

The total income generated by JSi was found to be less than £1m. The main contracts delivered under the brand, between 2012 and 2015 were for training Royal Oman Police officers (£255,000), consultancy on prison design in Libya (£128,000), and contracts in Nigeria (£130,000), Australia (£89,000), and the Seychelles (£34,000).

The cost of setting up JSi exceeded the income generated by completed contracts, with the NAO estimating costs approximating £2.1m from 2012 until its closure, including £239,000 on consultancy services. JSi, therefore, made a net loss of approximately £1.1m.