The Public Defender Service (PDS) improved in quality over the past year, its annual report has revealed - but at a cost that has led critics to dub it a 'white elephant'.

Some £10 million has been spent in the first three years of the pilot, which has eight offices in England and Wales.


PDS: failed to meet target for cases

The report highlighted a rapid improvement in quality, with all offices - compared to just one in 2002/3 - managing the highest category one rating in cost compliance audits. Each office exceeded the pass mark in the transaction criteria audit, which assesses quality of work. They also performed very well in client satisfaction surveys.

PDS head Gaynor Ogden said she was 'extremely pleased' with the improvement, which came from the PDS being more cohesive and rigorous internal audits.


However, it failed to meet the target number of new cases. Between them, the eight offices opened 4,291 new files against a target of 5,050, which Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, described as 'unambitious' in the first place. The report attributed the failure to staffing problems in some areas.



Overall, the PDS's running costs in 2003/4 were £3.8 million, which Mr Miller said translated into £885 per new case, which Ms Ogden said was a 'crude calculation'. Official figures show that the average claim per representation order for private practice firms is £506.


The PDS also fell short of targets for a more complex workload, with summary-only offences making up 40% or more of the cases for three offices. 'The taxpayer is paying more and getting less,' Mr Miller said. 'The plain truth is that after three full years of operation, the PDS is not attracting the clients and is proving to be a white elephant.'


Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said the economic case for the PDS has not yet been made.


Ms Ogden conceded that the PDS's own notional bills for magistrates' court work showed 'it is likely [the PDS is] going to be more expensive than private practice'. However, she maintained that the pilot was set up for other purposes, such as benchmarking and developing best practice.


This was backed up by the first stage of the research evaluation of the PDS. It said that in the investigation stage of cases, the PDS was assessed to perform better than private practice 'in terms of the overall level of service provided and the results achieved at police stations'. Fewer clients were charged, even though public defenders spent less time sitting in on police interviews.


Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said he was 'not surprised at the high level of cost', but it was helpful that the PDS had been a controlled pilot from which private practice could learn lessons.


The pilot will end and be assessed in autumn 2005.


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