The Government Legal Department is to draw up an action plan to improve client satisfaction following a tiny dip in ratings, according to the treasury solicitor’s latest annual report.

GLD, one of the largest legal organisations in the country, aims to achieve a client satisfaction rate of at least 95%. The 2022-23 annual report of HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor, published yesterday, shows that GLD hit its target - however, the result was a one percentage point drop on the previous year.

The report says the ratings ‘should be seen against the context of significant changes in government and pressure on staff. As ever, the survey has highlighted some issues that need to be addressed and an action plan will be in response’.

GLD, which employs over 3,000 staff, including 2,300 lawyers and paralegals, provides a legal service to the majority of central government departments. According to GLD’s annual report, also published yesterday, 780 clients responded to the department’s annual client satisfaction survey. 

Treasury solicitor Susanna McGibbon described 2022-23 as an ‘outstanding year of achievement’ for the department ‘against a turbulent backdrop’. GLD played a ‘critical and high-profile role at times of national, societal and constitutional significance’, she said.

Case studies highlighted in the GLD report include the Just Stop Oil protests, punitive tariffs on Russia and Belarus, Homes for Ukraine scheme, and the UK and Rwanda's controversial migration and economic development partnership.

GLD’s report also detailed efforts to become a ‘national GLD’. In January the department signed an agreement with HM Revenue and Customs for GLD colleagues to move into 3 New Bailey, Salford. The department expanded its existing presence in 2 Rivergate, Bristol, and agreed with the Government Property Agency a larger presence in Temple Quay House.

GLD is currently trying to identify a suitable, long-term office location in Croydon, Greater London. As part of a ‘reimagining the workplace programme’, two floors of the department's London office in 102 Petty France – which also houses the Ministry of Justice, Crown Prosecution Service and Law Commission - have been redesigned, ‘prioritising collaboration, meeting and task-based spaces in response to our increasingly hybrid working patterns’.

GLD is currently negotiating with trade unions an offer that would see average pay increases of 8% per year over the next two years for grades 6 and 7 lawyers.

 

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