Ministers abandon BVT

The MoJ has decided to abandon best value tendering for criminal legal aid. Pilot schemes in Manchester, Bristol and Somerset, due to start next year, will be scrapped.

Under BVT, legal aid contracts would have been awarded to the lowest bidder following an online auction.

A spokeswoman for the MoJ said in a statement: "Jack Straw, the justice secretary, and Lord Bach, the legal aid minister, have listened carefully to the representations made by the Law Society and by legal aid firms. They have been persuaded that the scheme currently proposed is unlikely to lead to the efficient, re-structured legal services market envisaged by Lord Carter in his 2006 Review of Legal Aid Procurement.

"Ministers remain fully committed to developing tendering processes with a more ambitious scope which reduce the overall costs for criminal legal aid and by increasing the opportunities for innovation and efficiency enable suppliers to be profitable and sustainable."

The society yesterday threatened to launch a judicial review against the LSC over what it termed the 'impossible' BVT tender process (see solicitorsjournal.com 17 December 2009).

'This is the last straw in what has been a flawed concept from the beginning,' Des Hudson, chief executive of the society, said. 'The tender process details confirm that this form of tendering is unsuitable for criminal defence service procurement.

'This approach, which has never been applied for the procurement of legal aid, is not in the public interest and will endanger our criminal justice system.'

The LSC originally planned to extend the award of contracts by BVT across England and Wales by January 2011.

In July this year, Carolyn Regan, chief executive of the LSC, announced that this would be delayed until 2013, but reaffirmed her determination to press ahead with the BVT pilots.

The LSC also planned to extend BVT to civil legal aid and made plans for pilots next year, which were dropped in the face of opposition from ministers.