Before the LSC announced its response to the best value tendering consultation last week, we at the Gazette were pretty sure what the story was going to be.

It seemed obvious that the LSC would press blithely on with its cost-saving reforms to criminal legal aid, regardless of the strength of opposition from suppliers. Everything seemed to point towards that – not least, the measly four weeks the LSC had given itself to read the 1,503 responses to the BVT consultation. More than 85% of responses were from individual solicitors or firms, which is a real credit to the profession, and there were also some pretty chunky offerings from professional bodies – the Law Society’s response ran to 45 pages. How can the LSC possibly get through it all in four weeks, we asked ourselves with raised eyebrows – the suspicion being that some of the documents would never actually get read.

So nowhere was there more surprise at the LSC’s decision to delay BVT than on the Gazette newsdesk. They had actually listened. We really hadn’t seen it coming. And when government delays something by three years – particularly a government which, let’s face it, is probably not going to be in power that long anyway – you can be pretty certain that, whatever it is, it’s never actually going to happen.

Cue tooting horns and jubilation from the profession? But that has not been the response. No one has been dancing on BVT’s grave, and that’s because the LSC hasn’t quite found the courage to jack the idea in entirely. We still have the face-saving pilots. The LSC is not abandoning BVT, it is not giving in to pressure from lawyers, it is merely piloting the scheme a bit more first to ‘evaluate its impact’.

Well we can already tell you what the impact will be on suppliers. The term ‘pilot’ somehow makes it sound benign, but the fact is that it could still spell the end for some crime firms in Avon & Somerset and Manchester. As Paul Marsh said last week, it can’t be right that firms should face bankruptcy over a pilot. But that is a realistic prospect. And that’s why nobody – wherever they are in the country – is rejoicing.

Come on, LSC, we all know BVT is not going to work. We know it’s more or less dead in the water. Why drag it out –the kindest thing for everyone would be to put it out of its misery now.