Closures: critics say the case has not been made for keeping the PDS open at all




The controversial Public Defender Service (PDS) is to be halved in size, the Legal Services Commission (LSC) announced last week.



The Cheltenham, Darlington, Pontypridd and Swansea offices are to continue, while those in Birmingham, Chester and Liverpool will be shut. The Middlesbrough office, which closed last year and had its staff moved to Darlington, will not reopen.



In a statement, the LSC said Cheltenham and Darlington had proven 'cost-effective and important local providers'. They also provided benchmarking information and acted as a test bed for service delivery. The Welsh offices had made 'significant improvements in terms of cost effectiveness since they first opened' and would be reviewed after the next financial year to look for further improvements.



It said the offices that are closing operated in areas that already had ample alternative private supply, 'which is likely to be why they did not capture enough of the work to give value for money'.



The LSC is now consulting with staff and trade unions, and hopes to offer the 18 affected staff alternative employment. Where possible, the offices will finish existing clients' cases, but cases will be passed to a law firm in the area if necessary.



The decision comes in the wake of the wider legal aid reforms and also the independent research into the PDS, which found that it offered good-quality advice but at a cost that was far higher than private practice (see [2007] Gazette, 11 January, 1).



LSC chief executive Carolyn Regan said: 'Moving forward, the PDS will provide improved value for money while continuing to provide good advice to clients. It clearly has an important role to play in the future provision of quality criminal defence services.'



Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Richard Miller said the entire service should have been shut down. 'The offices that have been closed fared quite badly in the research, so it's a step in the right direction that they have been closed. Overall it seems clear that the PDS delivers broadly the same quality service as private practice, but at a much higher cost and we can't see the case for keeping it open.'



Law Society Vice-President Andrew Holroyd said he supported the decision to close those offices that had failed to attract enough clients, and reiterated the need for legal aid rates to rise to help private practice firms stay in the field.