Strong opposition to Best Value Tendering in Crime

The Legal Services Commission has published a response to its consultation on Best Value Tendering (BVT) of Criminal Defence Services.
 
Despite strong opposition to the scheme, the document makes it clear that competition remains the LSC's preferred option.
 
It seems that most respondents did not favour the proposals. The document states:
 
Every representative body that responded to the consultation rejected BVT as an appropriate method for procuring criminal defence services in the future….The majority of providers echoed representative bodies' concerns."
 
However, the LSC have decided to press on with their ideas but with the concession that they will pilot BVT in the first instance. They therefore intend to work up a detailed BVT scheme for the pilot and will consult on this towards the end of this year. The consultation will include the criteria for success of the BVT pilot.
 
After six months to a year of the pilot contracts being let, they will publish a full assessment of the impact of the pilot. After this they will make a decision on whether or not to go ahead with national implementation.
 
Many respondents to the consultation commented that it was hard to respond because of the lack of detailed proposals. The LSC's response document still lacks detail but they do make the following cryptic assertions:

• Tendering will give providers more than one opportunity to secure work and will minimize the risk of accepting unsustainably low bids
• They will explore the relationship between contract length and the need to consider an automatic annual price increase to decrease the risk of contracts becoming unsustainable
• Clients will be able to choose from the successful bidders and will not be directed to a particular individual provider
• Their current assumption is that peer review rating three will be the standard for the initial pilot areas but they will "continue to examine ways to raise standards of quality as any system develops"
• They will take account of local factors in the development of the proposals

In relation to civil work the document states that the LSC will consult separately on BVT in civil legal aid in Spring 2009 "ahead of planned trials in a small number of geographical areas in 2010-11".
 
We are encouraged by the proposals to pilot BVT before implementing the scheme nationally. We only hope that the pilot is genuine and will be fully evaluated and that national implementation is not a foregone conclusion.