I’m pleased to inform Philip Miles that from 14 July the number of duty solicitors working on our schemes will actually rise from 6,161 to 6,206 – an increase of 45 nationally (see [2008] Gazette, 19 June, 11). Some new solicitors clearly wish to join the profession.

The number of firms applying for contracts and the number of individual offices associated with those firms have also risen. Only 31 out of 1,759 firms (or 1.8% of the total) chose not to renew their contracts. The vast majority were small firms, and there does not seem to have been any disproportionate withdrawal of larger firms.

Mr Miles raises concerns that the new firms entering the market are sole practitioners or two-partner firms. New practices are of course likely to be small in the existing system, but the fact that solicitors are willing to set up new practices must indicate a continuing interest in the criminal defence market.