Tendering for duty contracts opened on the same day the government published its response to the second consultation over the reforms, which was forced on it by the successful judicial review brought by CLSA and the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association (see November 2014 Legal Action 4).

Despite the government’s apparent determination, there are doubts about whether its plans, which would reduce the number of duty contracts from 1,600 to 527, will actually go ahead.

Waddington described the proposals as ‘absolute nonsense,’ and said they would not work. ‘It might be possible in some areas,’ but for many ‘urban and rural areas, I believe this is unworkable’.

CLSA maintains that the assumptions on which the scheme is based are flawed. Waddington says that the report by accountancy firm KPMG, commissioned by the government, assumes that successful bidders will give up half of their own client work. Waddington says: ‘This is absolute nonsense. Having fought for own client work, why would you say to 50 per cent of your clients, you have to go somewhere else?’

However, Waddington was noncommittal about whether CLSA would call for a boycott of the tender process, saying such suggestions were premature. ‘First and foremost, we want to see if we can judicially review the government’s decision.’ As part of any judicial review proceedings, they would be seeking an injunction to stop the tenders going ahead, he added.

Vicky Ling, who co-authored the report by Otterburn Legal Consulting on the criminal legal aid market for the government, told Legal Action that she was disappointed ‘that there are so few changes from the previous proposals’. Ling warned that the government had embarked on a ‘high risk strategy’.