Written question asked by Roseanna Cunningham (Scottish National Party) on Tuesday, 12 January 1999, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 January 1999. It was answered by Henry McLeish (Labour) on Monday, 18 January 1999 on behalf of the Scottish Office.

Scottish Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many clients have been referred to the Public Defence Solicitor's Office since its establishment, broken down by month; and how many (i) interviews with clients have been conducted, (ii) intermediate diets have been carried out on behalf of clients and (iii) trials have been conducted on behalf of clients. - Including table and figures.

Answer: Ms Roseanna Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many clients have been referred to the Public Defence Solicitor's Office since its establishment, broken down by month; and how many (i) interviews with clients have been conducted, (ii) intermediate diets have been carried out on behalf of clients and (iii) trials have been conducted on behalf of clients. [65955] Mr. McLeish: The number of clients/new cases referred to the Public Defence Solicitors' Office (PDSO) since its establishment on 1 October 1998 until 31 December 1998 (the latest date for which information is available) is shown in the following table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Month/Year New cases October 1998 42 November 1998 55 December 1998 65 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Information on the total number of interviews with clients is not available as many of these interviews may have taken place at court. Intermediate diets were scheduled to take place by 31 December 1998 on 19 occasions. No information is presently available on how many of these diets proceeded. Twelve trial diets were scheduled to take place by 31 December 1998. Of those, 3 proceeded to trial.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 65955; 323 c355W
Session: 1998-99
Subjects: Interviews Legal representation Legal opinion Trials Public Defence Solicitors' Office Intermediate diets
Contains statistics: Yes