Michael Burdett’s criticisms of CDS Direct and the Defence Solicitor Call Centre (Letters, 23 April) ignore recent positive comments by independent practitioners.

Having carried out an independent review of CDS Direct, Michael’s colleagues, Andrew Keogh and Tony Edwards, were fulsome in their praise. Mr Keogh described the quality of CDS Direct as ‘extraordinarily high’ and added that it achieved ‘superb outcomes that we (private practice) would not have achieved’.

Mr Edwards’ opinion that ‘they are truly impressive and working at a standard far above anything that private practice would or could do’ serves to highlight the benefits and value of the service.

It’s also unfair to tie issues over telephone answering to the Defence Solicitor Call Centre. A man of Mr Burdett’s experience is well aware that practitioners raised such issues long before the inception of CDS Direct.

Contrary to Mr Burdett’s assertions, we are, in fact, discussing with local police and with the Association of Chief Police Officers how to improve the problem of contacting police stations, but, again, we do attempt callbacks on average within three minutes.

The Legal Services Commission is committed to ensuring that individuals accused of an offence receive the advice and assistance they are entitled to. In the case of phone advice, this is achieved in part by requiring providers of CDS Direct to obtain a higher-quality standard than other criminal solicitor firms.

We estimate that CDS Direct saves the taxpayer around £8m a year and we have agreed to review this estimate with the professional bodies over the next few months. The money saved is reinvested into the legal aid scheme to enable more people to get help.

John Sirodcar, National accounts director, Legal Services Commission