§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will make a statement on progress in expanding the role of the Public Defender Service. [144881]
§ Mr. LammyThe Legal Services Commission opened two further Public Defender Service offices in 2003, making a total of eight offices. There are no current plans to open further offices before the end of the four-year pilot in 2005. 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. We will review the future role of the PDS in the provision of criminal defence services, taking into consideration the researchers' evaluations of the PDS.