The Legal Services Commission has announced it is to drop peer review as a method of quality assurance for firms seeking to bid for most publicly funded work.

From April 2010 peer review will only be used on a risk-based and random-sampling basis, rather than being incorporated into the process of bidding for work.

The LSC said it was adopting a more proportionate approach, as the majority of completed peer reviews since 2005 show firms have achieved good standards, scoring three or above.

It said the move also reflects the transformation it is making towards becoming a purely commissioning organisation, with quality assurance, accreditation and regulation done by the professions.

Providers will need to have Lexcel – the Law Society’s practice management standard – or the LSC’s own Specialist Quality Mark.

‘The changes do not affect the quality standard that we require of providers, but mean that we will get the assurance we need in a different way,’ said the LSC.

‘We will work closely with regulators and representative bodies to ensure that professional standards provide a good baseline of quality which clients can rely on.’

But Carol Storer (pictured), director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said the move added to concerns about the reduction in quality of service and blamed cost considerations.

Rodney Warren, Law Society council member and director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: ‘If we’re not careful this will be the LSC ­abrogating all responsibility for quality.’