So the LAA need an extra 2 weeks to undertake additional “quality assurance to ensure that these important decisions are right”.
We are again left speculating as to what this might involve, and I am frankly tempted not to bother. It is a fundamentally flawed process which will be subject to appeal and litigation and then may further unpick, when “verification” commences. At the heart of it – the scoring of award criteria – looks unlikely to stand up to detailed scrutiny in any event. Fundamentally it will not lead to the desired market consolidation and is consequently an utterly unnecessary risk.
The hope is that a realisation of that problem has also now occurred at the MoJ.
The only rational approach right now is to give contracts to all those willing to struggle on with criminal defence work.
