Public Defender Service

HC Deb 22 January 2004 vol 416 cc1451-2W

Mr. Gamier

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) what the set up costs were of each of the Public Defender Service's pilot offices; [149439]

(2) what assessment (a) he and (b) the Legal Services Commission has made of the average cost per case arising from the Public Defender Service's handling of criminal defence work in (i) 2001–02 and (ii) 2002–03; [149440]

(3) what assessment (a) he and (b) the Legal Services Commission has made of the Public Defender Service's performance; and how this has informed decisions regarding the extension of those pilots. [149441]

Mr. Lammy

The set up costs of the Public Defender Service (PDS) were as follows: Birmingham £193,312; Cheltenham £221,054; Darlington £126,867; Chester £175,225; Liverpool £141,663; Middlesbrough £166,479; Pontypridd £108,754; Swansea £254,014; Central £419,346. Total £1,806,714. These costs were reported in the first two PDS Annual Reports. Individual office costs include refurbishment, furniture, some IT hardware, software, office equipment and security systems. Central costs include purchase of case management system, integration into the Legal Services Commission (LSC) IT network, recruitment and induction.

Assessment of the average cost per case in the PDS is one element of an extensive Methodology (the Methodology Paper can be found at www.legalservices.gov.uk or available on request) developed by the independent research team. The researchers began to collect data at the beginning of the second year of the four-year pilot and are due to report in 2005. A full assessment of average case costs will not be possible until all the research has been completed. In part, this is because the offices need to develop foil caseloads in order for the assessment to be undertaken. All offices began with no clients and full case loads can only be developed over time.

The Department monitors the PDS by way of monthly reports from the LSC on the PDS and regularly meets with the LSC and the researchers. In order to better assess the performance of (he PDS the LSC, with the agreement of Ministers, increased the number of PDS offices from six to eight in 2003. Ministers will make a decision on the future of the PDS in the light of the research at the end of 2005. There are no current plans to open further offices but the Government and the LSC have always said that the PDS provides a flexible option to deliver criminal defence services where existing provision is low, or of poor quality.