The Legal Services Commission has published its second consultation paper on best value tendering (BVT) for criminal defence work in police stations and magistrates’ courts. Despite widespread criticism of the scheme, under which firms bid for volumes of work, the LSC is pressing ahead with a timetable that it calls ‘ambitious’ but which practitioners claim is reckless and cavalier. The plan is for the scheme to be rolled out nationally by 2011.

Even more worrying for solicitors, and most importantly defendants, than the tight implementation schedule, are proposals floated in the paper to limit face-to-face advice in police stations. Increasing the scope of telephone advice, so as to limit face-to-face advice to those charged with the most serious offences (such as rape, murder and terrorism), will save £70m-£100m a year, the LSC suggests.

Such a scheme would maintain the universal right to consult a solicitor privately at the police station (even if by phone) while taking account of advances in communications technology, and may also speed up access to advice in some cases and bring greater consistency, the LSC adds.

The commission says there are no firm plans to expand telephone advice ‘significantly’ at present, but it intends to carry out research into the ‘value that is added’ by face-to-face advice.

Would it be too cynical to detect a veiled threat in the paper – play ball with us on BVT or these changes in the scheme’s scope may be brought forward?