By Catherine Baksi


The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has been forced to postpone changes to the way duty solicitor slots are allocated - due to come into operation next month - after admitting there were 'inaccuracies' in the data on which it based its decisions.



As part of measures intended to ensure market stability in the supply of criminal defence services ahead of the introduction of best value tendering, the LSC planned to allocate slots to firms in proportion to the number of claims for duty solicitor and own client police station work that they billed between 1 December 2005 and 30 November 2006. Defence solicitors criticised the plan as 'unfair' and 'arbitrary'.



Following a 'high response' from solicitors, the LSC has acknowledged its data was flawed. It will now consult on an interim measure of allocating slots on the basis of the number of duty solicitors firms had on the scheme on 26 November 2006.



Rotas for May will be issued using the same policy adopted for April. The LSC will contact practitioners shortly about the way forward.



Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: 'Firms have made business decisions based on the LSC's announcements. This isn't market stability; it is wholesale market instability. A large number of firms will be looking to the LSC for compensation.'



Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, added: 'It makes a mockery of the idea of business planning. Firms have no idea how much they are going to get.'



A Law Society spokesman said: 'The LSC is pushing through changes to legal aid too fast, with too little understanding of the impacts and without the funding to ensure a viable supplier base will survive.'



But, an LSC spokesman insisted it is committed to delivering the market stability proposals on which it consulted and to setting out a way forward.