Law Society says current proposals for best value tendering are unworkable

10 March 2008

The Law Society is calling on the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to reassess their plans to introduce best value tendering (BVT) into criminal legal aid procurement, warning that the current plans could put many firms out of business.

The Law Society has issued a response to the LSC’s consultation identifying the problems best value tendering will raise.

Richard Miller, the Law Society's legal aid manager, says:

"The LSC are the monopoly buyer of these services, which prevents firms from bidding at a market price. They either win the contract or go out of business."

"We are concerned that firms will make unduly low bids, having never tendered before, and then find they are unable to deliver. Under the current proposals, those firms unsuccessful in tendering will no longer be there to take up the slack from successful bidders who feel the strain."

Historically BVT tendering has been implemented to procure public contracts with a single supplier or lead supplier, to provide a service which can be reasonably quantified. However, the Law Society point out that the volume of work in criminal defence legal services is difficult to quantify.

Richard Miller says: "The current proposals on the table leave a lot of questions unanswered. How can firms place a financial value on these services in the bidding process if there is no way of predicting the volume of work under the contracts?"

"The LSC’s proposals also fail to explain how quality will be ensured. We hope that we can work with the LSC to help shape the landscape of criminal defence legal services in a way that suits the profession and, ultimately, service users."