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Carter Review (Legal Aid)

I recognise that a number of other Members wish to contribute, so I shall be as brief as I can in drawing my remarks to a close. I draw the House’s attention to a fundamental assumption about what will happen after the first or second tendering round—Lord Carter himself, in evidence to the Committee, suggested that it would be the case. When asked what would happen about the maintenance of effective competition beyond the first bid round, he said that it would be"““very difficult…I think people will leave.””" However, he said,"““if people saw that there are weak suppliers in an area,””" they might ““break away”” or come in"““from other areas, which is probably more likely.””" It is a sort of ““on your bike”” theory of tendering. It is most unlikely to happen in this area of supply. That is why it would have been important to pilot the process in London, as was suggested, before undertaking the Carter review. The Government’s response to the Select Committee report says:"““We propose to roll out best value tendering initially””." That is a sort of suggestion of piloting, inasmuch as the Government recognise"““the need…for a dynamic information monitoring process in order to assess the state of the market.””" A roll-out is not the same as a pilot, nor will it enable the sort of lessons to be learned that I have suggested are needed. I also note that the Government propose in their response to undertake consultation on the tendering processes that will be designed for the system. I hope, if piloting is not to occur, that the design of the tendering process will take into account the fact that inevitably, both the initial and subsequent rounds of tendering will have to be very different in some areas from others. I suggest that in some areas, the mechanism effectively would not be a tendering process. If the consultation leads to that conclusion, it will be a positive outcome. Careful thought is needed about how the system will progress. As other hon. Members have suggested, the danger is that we might end up effectively destroying the very service of which I, as a Labour Member and supporter of this Government, have been so proud—a service introduced over many years to ensure that people receive the proper assistance in accessing justice.