Barristers attack legal aid plans from government – BBC News
“Barristers have attacked plans to cut £220m from the annual criminal case legal aid budget in England and Wales.”
BBC News, 4th June 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Category: tenders
Middle-class families face ruin under legal aid reforms, top lawyer warns – Daily Telegraph
“Middle class families face bankruptcy and miscarriages of justice under reforms which threaten to undermine the Britain’s legal system, one of the country’s most senior lawyers has warned.”
Daily Telegraph, 31st May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘We’re at the cliff edge now’ – LegalVoice
“‘Unity is our secret weapon’ was the key message that emerged from this week’s unprecedented meeting of 1,000 defence lawyers who voted unanimously backing a motion that price competitive tendering was ‘not the way forward’, writes Jon Robins.”
LegalVoice, 24th May 2013
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
Legal profession joins forces to oppose unreasonable legal aid proposals – The Bar Council
“Representatives of the Law Society and the Bar Council have joined forces with wider practitioner bodies to oppose the Ministry of Justice Consultation on proposed savage cuts to the funding of the Criminal Legal Aid Budget, the introduction of Price Competitive Tendering and other changes to the criminal justice system.”
The Bar Council, 14th May 2013
Source: www.barcouncil.org.uk
Undermine Legal Aid and you put our entire justice system at risk – The Independent
“Now top legal talent will find the prospect of working in criminal courts less attractive.”
The Independent, 14th May 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Legal aid tendering: will it actually work? – The Guardian
“The MoJ’s public consultations on legal aid reforms show they are open-minded, but if the aim remains to reduce spending, what about the cost to justice?”
The Guardian, 8th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Society urges super-regulator to delay advocacy scheme – Law Society’s Gazette
“The Law Society’s chief executive has urged super-regulator the Legal Services Board to delay implementation of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), in recognition of the ‘profound shifts and uncertainties’ afflicting criminal practitioners.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 1st May 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
Exeter lawyer’s anti-legal aid tendering petition signed by 24,000 – BBC News
“A petition against proposed changes to criminal legal aid set up by an Exeter-based solicitor has attracted more than 24,000 signatures.”
BBC News, 30th April 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Transforming legal aid: a guide to defence tendering – LegalVoice
“A guide to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on criminal legal aid reform (Transforming Legal Aid: Delivering a more credible and efficient system) and price competitive tendering published earlier this week.”
LegalVoice, 11th April 2013
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
The CBA misunderstand and are misrepresenting QASA warns the BSB – Bar Standards Board
“Yesterday’s Criminal Bar Association message contains some unhelpful inaccuracies which the Bar Standards Board needs to correct.”
Bar Standards Board, 9th April 2013
Source: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk
MoJ unveils tendering plans for criminal defence – Law Society’s Gazette
“Defendants will lose the right to choose their lawyer and instead be allocated a representative, under government plans to introduce price-competitive tendering (PCT) for criminal defence services.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 9th April 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
Our justice system is being turned into Profit & Growth plc – The Guardian
“Under Chris Grayling’s plans, lawyers will become unit-shifters employed by large corporations.”
The Guardian, 1st April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
No consultation on principle of criminal legal aid tendering – LAG News Blog
“It was clear from the meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid yesterday evening that there is a wide gulf between legal aid practitioners and the government on the issue of competitive tendering for criminal legal aid services. Members of the audience, many of whom were solicitors and barristers specialising in criminal work, were shocked to hear Dr Elizabeth Gibby, the senior official at the Ministry of Justice responsible for the policy, declare that the consultation on competitive tendering planned for next month ‘will be on the model only and not the principle’.”
LAG News Blog, 21st March 2013
Source: www.legalactiongroupnews.org.uk
Econord SpA v Comune di Cagno and others – WLR Daily
Econord SpA v Comune di Cagno and others (Joined Cases C-182/11 and C-183/11); [2012] WLR (D) 356
“The condition established by the case law of the Court of Justice European Union (Teckal Srl v Comune di Viano (Case C-107/98) [1999] ECR I-8121 and Parking Brixen GmbH v Gemeinde Brixen (Case C-485/03) [2005] ECR I-8585) to the effect that, in order to be exempted from their obligation to initiate a public tendering procedure and instead to make an in-house award of a contract to a jointly owned municipal company, public authorities had to jointly exercise over that entity control similar to the control they exercised over their own departments, was fulfilled where each of those authorities not only held capital in that entity, but also played a role in its managing bodies.”
WLR Daily, 29th November 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Confidential bid information could be disclosed under FOI laws, rules Tribunal – OUT-LAW.com
“Public sector bodies cannot guarantee the confidentiality of bid information in the aftermath of an Information Rights Tribunal ruling, an expert has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 27th November 2012
Source: www.out-law.com
