Roger Smith is right to underline the need for effective representation in police stations at a time when that service is being seriously undermined by the extension of the Defence Solicitor Call Centre and CDS Direct to own-solicitor cases. I claim to be one of the founders of the police station duty solicitor scheme way back in 1984, and still serve on eight London schemes at the age of 67, having practised criminal law for 45 years.

The extension, which provides for all requests for own solicitors (amounting to two-thirds of calls outside London) to be routed through the DSCC, which then has to contact the requested firm, has now been in existence for about 15 months. I am convinced from my own experience and anecdotal evidence from my peers that the system is causing serious delay in, if not denial of, access by own clients to legal advice. Under the old system, the police, who probably knew the local firm, contacted them direct; advice was frequently given and arrangements to attend for interview were made in that one call. Now, because police station lines are frequently engaged, unanswered, or connected to voicemail, or custody staff claim that they are too busy to bring the suspect to the phone, clients often give up waiting for their own solicitor to make contact and go into the interview unadvised and unassisted.

The Legal Services Commission has, or should have, ample evidence of the difficulties in contacting police stations through the statistics collected daily from CDS Direct since its inception in 2005. The LSC seems to have done little to influence the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office to improve the situation. But then why should we expect it to do so, as the current impediments save it money?

I should be interested to hear from fellow criminal practitioners of examples of their inability to contact own clients. Perhaps we can draw up our own statistics to confront those who seem determined to flout European law and prevent suspects from obtaining the assistance to which they are entitled.

Michael Burdett, Consultant, HCL Hanne & Co Solicitors, London