Government delays launch of Criminal Defence Service

Criminal legal aid contracting is to be put back by six months because its timetable for implementation has proved too tight.According to Richard Collins, head of the Criminal Defence Service (CDS), the Legal Services Commission's pilot study revealed that existing methods of claiming legal aid in criminal cases were 'more complex than [the commission] ever thought'.Mr Collins said the commission now needed more time to think about implementation of criminal contracting and to prepare the draft contract.

'We got to a point where we were looking at the timetable for implementation and it was a bit tight,' he said.Although criminal contracting is to be put back, the CDS will press ahead with the first stage of reform in October.

At that point, only franchised firms, or those which have passed a preliminary franchise audit, will be able to do criminal work.Malcolm Fowler, chairman of the Law Society's criminal law committee, said it was 'very encouraging that the commission is learning from the patchy introduction of civil contracting and is taking its time to get a complex piece of machinery right'.

Sue Allen