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The ghost rational.
Last week I met a ghost getting £1500 pm for their slots. That's 75% of my take home for a full months work. i could earn that extra £500 doing 2 days freelancing in the police station and MC per month. Leaving me able to do a full time job for +£40k pa.

The reason for the delay is the MoJ considering how to de-ghost.
a) how many police station and MC attendances should be required pm.
b) Whether this should cover past attendances or those during the rota term
c) Whether this requirement should attach to the firm re the number of duty solicitors it has, or the individual duty solicitor.

Those with influence are arguing that it should attach to the firm otherwise some large firms will fail and digitisation will go backwards. I disagree. This choice would retain the ghosts and entrench the very firms who have grown by creating the ghost problem.

At court most solicitors are still using paper files while the self employed bar are all digital.

The MoJ needs to move away from a contract that created circumstances where the route to growth was using ghosts rather then innovating, adopting digital working. To do so rota slots must be with the duty solicitors who 'do the day job' because it funds the startups that bring change and forces firms to take on new blood as equity partners. This all leads to a provider base that quickly adopts the best innovations as a route to profit.

It's an old lesson but it's still true. Free open markets work. Government department micro management of private business doesn't.