§ Mr. SinghTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department which salaried defence offices will be open in April; what plans he has to monitor the772W relative quality and cost of the salaried defence offices; and if there will be independent research into the piloted schemes. [149291]
§ Mr. LockThe first salaried defenders offices will open at the beginning of May. The recruitment process for the office heads has taken a little longer than we hoped. An independent research team headed by Professor Lee Bridges, the Legal Research Institute, University of Warwick has been appointed to monitor and assess, among other things, the relative cost and quality of salaried defence offices compared with private practitioners.