London borough seeks involvement in legal aid crime contracts judicial review

The London Borough of Newham is backing a judicial review challenge brought by law firms over the Legal Aid Agency’s recent award of new legal aid crime contracts.

At 2 pm today (7 December) at the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith will hear in the High Court an application by the Fair Crime Contracts Alliance – comprising a number of unsuccessful firms – and Newham for permission to bring judicial review proceedings.

According to the CrimeLine Complete service, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith has already indicated that he is minded to grant permission on the papers. However, this is subject to consideration of whether the alliance and the council have standing to bring the claim.

A spokesperson for Newham said: “We support the judicial review into the Duty Solicitor Crime Contract Tender as we want to ensure that due process has been followed and that the process was adequate, efficient and fair. Any breach of this is not only a failure to comply with statutory requirements, but a blatant disregard for the needs of the most vulnerable in our society.

“Local firms raised their concerns with us, which we shared when looked at the matter. Newham has a high level of need and some of our residents are ill-equipped to pay for legal services themselves. We want to ensure that local firms in our borough and neighbouring boroughs, some of whom are specialists in their fields, are available to provide first class legal services to our residents. In addition, that the outcome of the tender process is the best possible one that will not further reduce the capacity of residents in the borough to access appropriate legal services or impact on long established local businesses.”

Last month the Legal Aid Agency put back the start date for the new contracts to 1 April 2016, rather than 11 January.

In a statement the agency said 519 out of 520 successful bidders had indicated their intention to accept the new 2015 Own Client and Duty Provider Crime Contracts, but it acknowledged that a number of unsuccessful bidders had chosen to legally challenge its decisions.

It said: “There are now automatic injunctions on us proceeding with the new contracts in a number of procurement areas until those legal challenges are resolved.

“Our first priority is to ensure criminal legal aid remains available to those who need it and we cannot risk gaps in provision due to ongoing litigation. We have therefore taken the difficult but necessary decision to delay the implementation of the new contracts.”