Duty Solicitors: North West

(asked on 8th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that adequate numbers of criminal duty solicitors are available in (a) the North West, (b) Merseyside, (c) Wirral and (d) Wallasey.


Answered by
Wendy Morton Portrait
Wendy Morton
This question was answered on 13th January 2020

The Government is clear that there are sufficient solicitors to undertake criminal legal aid-funded cases and will make sure this continues to be the case in (a) the North West, (b) Merseyside, (c) Wirral and (d) Wallasey. The Government commenced a review of all criminal legal aid fee schemes in December 2018, including the criminal duty solicitor fee scheme.

In June 2019 the Government took the decision to accelerate certain key areas of the Criminal Legal Aid Review that were highlighted to be of immediate concern to defence practitioners.

In addition to monitoring duty solicitor coverage on an ongoing basis where issues are identified, the Government continues to take action to ensure there is ongoing availability of criminal legal advice for the public.

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