Amendments to General Criminal Contract
Consultation on Proposed Amendments to the General Criminal Contract for implementation in October 2007
Consultation has commenced on proposed amendments to the General Criminal Contract and Associated Arrangements necessary to implement the following policy changes in October 2007. The consultation papers and the outcome of consultation, which are located in Related Documents, include:
1. Introduction of Best Value Panel for Very High Cost Cases
2. Amendments to the remuneration arrangements for Police Station Attendances (Fixed Fees)
3. Expansion of the DSCC to cover all requests for assistance from both Duty and Own Solicitor, and to CDS Direct to provide Telephone Only Advice to all clients.
The full consultation document can be found in Related Documents. Consultation will last for 6 weeks and closes at 4pm on 9 August 2007.
Regulator Impact Assessment
Individual RIA's have been published for each of the policy changes to which these amendments relate, therefore no seperate RIA is necessary.
For further informationplease contact cds.directorate@legalservices.gov.uk. Please add 'GCC Amendments' to the subject line.
How to Respond
Responses should be sent:
By email: cds.directorate@legalservices.gov.uk. Please add 'GCC Consultation Response' to the subject line.
By Post:
Sarah Acikgoz
CDS Policy Team
Legal Services Commission
85 Grays Inn Road
London WC1X 8TX
Or By fax: 0207 759 1051
Amendments to the General Criminal Contract (Apr 07)
Following consultation with professional bodies the LSC has issued Notices of Contract amendment for the General Criminal Contract. The amendments are as a result of two separate consultations as detailed below.
Amendments to Standard Terms
General Criminal Contracts will extend, automatically, from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008. However, we wanted to make some changes to the General Criminal Contract Standard Terms from 1 April 2007 and, in accordance with the terms of the General Criminal Contract, sent a consultation paper 'General Criminal Contract Information and Standard Terms Amendments 1 April 2007' to The Law Society, setting out our proposals for consultation.
Amendments to Contract Specification
The closing date for this consultation was Friday 9 February 2007.
The consultation included:
- amendments to implement revised magistrates' standard fees in main urban areas (note: Gosport and Blyth Valley have now been removed from the list of urban areas)
- further amendments to implement changes to the funding arrangements for prescribed proceedings
- other minor amendments.
The consultation also included details of the amendments that would be necessary to implement proposals contained in our recent consultation on Market Stability Measures.
Under the Related Documents panel on this page, you can read the outcome of consultation and consultation paper for both sets of amendments. Copies of the Notices of amendment on our Contract Documentation and Guidance page.
Regulatory Impact Assessment
Our RIA on our Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead report covers the policy changes in this consultation.
A final RIA for Magistrates' Court Revised Fees is available from the related documents section of this page.
Last updated: 28 June 2007