Tuesday 1 October 1998

The first Public Defence Solicitors’ Office in the UK opened today in Edinburgh. The office was officially opened by Henry McLeish MP, Scottish Executive Minister for Home Affairs, Devolution and Local Government.

The PDSO has been set up as a five year pilot scheme which will compare a system of publicly employed defence solicitors with the current criminal legal aid service provided by private solicitors. The team of six Public Defence Solicitors are paid an annual salary, rather than being paid on a case by case basis, and they will provide legal advice, assistance and representation in court for those who cannot afford to pay for it themselves. The office will handle only summary criminal cases in Edinburgh sheriff and district courts, and is expected to deal with approximately 15% of the legal aid cases in these courts.

Speaking today at the official opening, Director of the Public Defence Solicitors’ Office, Alistair Watson, said: "I am convinced that there is a need for the sort of service that the Public Defence Solicitors’ Office can provide. I believe that the taxpayer who funds the system and the client who needs the service will both benefit. Our goal is to provide a service which provides value for money, and this means more than simply saving money. We have a tremendous opportunity to look afresh at aspects of the role of the defence solicitor and to explore ways in which we can perhaps improve upon the service we provided to our clients when we were private practitioners. "

Alistair Watson continued, "I have no doubt that in the years to come the PDSO can be a Scottish institution of which we can be proud and which, like the Procurator Fiscal service and other particularly Scottish institutions, may be envied and copied by others elsewhere."

During the pilot scheme, the work of the PDSO will be independently evaluated by The Scottish Executive Central Research Unit, and a report will be presented to Parliament after the first three years. The pilot will be evaluated on the basis of cost effectiveness, quality of service, contribution to the justice system and client satisfaction.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board is responsible for setting up the PDSO and the Director of the PDSO will report to the Board on administrative issues. In all other ways, the PDSO will operate entirely independently. The Board will assess applications for summary criminal legal aid in the same way that it does for applications submitted by private solicitors.

To ensure that the PDSO deals with enough cases to make a fair and valuable evaluation of the project, clients whose birthday falls in January or February of any year will be directed to the PDSO and only the PDSO can provide them with criminal legal assistance.

In 1997/98, £82 million was spent on criminal legal aid in Scotland. The total legal aid budget was £145 million. The average cost of a criminal case in 1997/98 was £1,073.

For further information contact:

Charlotte Townsend at the Scottish Legal Aid Board on 0131 226 7061.