Shifting criminal justice landscape forces duty solicitor merger

A constantly shifting criminal justice landscape in the Midlands which saw duty solicitors being assigned detainees based on where they were arrested has prompted the Legal Aid Agency to combine two police station schemes.

The Redditch and Bromsgrove scheme and Kidderminster scheme will be combined to create one rota. 

A consultation document on the plan reveals that following the closure of the Redditch police station custody block, Kidderminster Police Station calls the Defence Solicitor Call Centre, which asks where the detainee was arrested. Calls are allocated to a member of the Redditch and Bromsgrove rota or Kidderminster rota based on the arrest location. Anecdotal evidence suggested this system has operated with ‘mixed’ success.

‘It has been confirmed that the new police station currently under construction in Redditch will also not have a custody suite,’ the consultation document adds.

‘Given that the West Mercia remand court now centralised in Kidderminster and Redditch Magistrates' Court is no longer utilised for crime work, consideration should now be given to permanently amalgamating the two schemes so that the combined membership serves the Kidderminster custody suite on a single 24-hour rota basis. This would simplify the administration of the scheme while continuing to allocate work arising from Kidderminster Police Station to local firms.’

The postcode tool will also be amended to correct an 'unintended consequence' of estate and operational delivery changes.

The consultation document said: ‘Providers within the DY8 1XX postcode historically had access to the smaller Dudley/Brierly Hill/Halesowen and Kidderminster duty solicitor schemes by virtue of the Duty Solicitor Regulations of a previous contract which decided scheme access by travel times by public transport to police stations and courts - those rules are no longer in force.

‘This postcode gives access to firms located there to both the Kidderminster/West Mercia and Black Country rotas as an unintended consequence arising from changes in justice system estate/operational delivery. The continuation of this single dual access postcode in the West Midlands has the potential to significantly distort the market in this postcode area and impact the associated duty schemes.’

The changes will apply to the 2025 crime contract.