I blame coming back from holidays, a dose of Cairo belly and then having to shout at 80 delegates for 10 hours, but try as I might I could not find this document the other day.

It is a new guide to Crime PR compliance from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies prefaced by Prof. Avrom Sherr. It should not just be a must for criminal practitioners but is worth a read by civil lawyers - to get a feel for the standards being set and for pointers as to file preparation all round.

We hope to make a short aide memoir for quick reference in the near future.

I never quite trust evaluation feedback on training courses. Even if you think it is a good course which has gone well you remain suspicious that it is similar to the polite praise for a meal one receives from a house guest. Vanity however encourages acceptance and these therefore appear to be pretty good courses. What is clear is that people have given Peer Review very little consideration and that this major leap forward has largely passed the profession by.

We also - by chance ran the courses in the same hotel the LSC are using for a briefing on Preferred supplier in a couple of weeks. Apparently this will involve the top brass coming oop north. There is clearly a charm offensive on.

Informal soundings at Leeds/Bradford yesterday (thats our training course and not the airport) indicate that this was both timely and accurate. Two two further firms report feeling the pinch of this new aspect of partnership working. These revelations followed the morning session when we had been discussing the Preferred Supplier Scheme. The LSC's chief aim in this initiative is to repair the fractured relationship between themselves and the profession especially rebuilding the loss of trust.

Good start being made with the Mental Health providers then.

You all avidly read each new Focus within minutes of its arrival in your in tray I know.

This one, number 50, has a new set of Key Card eligibility calculators these numbered 42 and 42a for Civil and Crime respectively. These are applicable for all funding applications post April 10th.

Now I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that.

I wish we had been doing this blog thing for years. It allows you sagely to add a little blue link back to a particularly perspicacious article. Unfortunately the prediction which currently seems to be coming true predates my conversion to cyberspace, so you will just have to take my slightly (and regretfully) smug word for it.

The use of CCAs as a deliberate mechanism to drive Immigration practices out of business, generally unfairly, is pretty much established history. It got off to a haphazard start very much dependant upon the confidence of the regional auditing staff with the subject matter. Latterly of course this has been transferred to a "specialist" unit in London ensuring that the real purpose of the process could effectively be prosecuted.

We have been warning clients undertaking Mental Health work that it appeared to us to potentially be the "new immigration", for years. Sure enough the appearance of "specialist" units, conversant with MH casework and the category specific Contract and guidance, were announced in December (see Focus 49). This promised that all CCA audits would be undertaken by these units from April 2006.

Yesterday was 25th April 2006.

Yes you are ahead of me - yesterday I was notified of the first Cat. 3 outcome of an appeal conducted by the new unit. A one off or are there more to come?

These clairvoyant skills are a real burden you know!

First day back but unfortunately suffering from the curse of Tutenkhamun.

Mixed news greets me - a failed attempt at a PoP (no change there) and notification of another "below competent" Peer Review result balanced against a (partial and only technical) result on a PR appeal (substantive to follow).

I of course am doing final run throughs of the new courses for Manchester tomorrow and Leeds on Thursday - I will no doubt see some of you there.

Andy Bean [Lead Fieldwork Consultant] writes:

Simon is due back on Monday so hopefully normal service will then be resumed. I have had an interesting couple of days with the top 10% club raising its head again but in two different formats.

The first being in the normal format with 20 Police station claims being selected. The second was in the guise of a Post Contract audit for a branch office. The audit is to be undertaken in early May so the firm have only just recently received the audit plan. The usual requests have been made i.e. Central Records etc but also a selection of specific 1C claims. The firm are aware they are out of profile and have a high average, but this is due to the fact that this is a new branch office and therefore the majority of work at present is undertaken as Duty Solicitor. The most annoying thing is that this has been properly monitored by the firm and fully discussed with their account manager at regular intervals over the last 12 months.

With regard to both of these examples - are they just cost recoupment exercises or some kind of preparation for Carter/Preferred Supplier? We will wait and see.

Posted by Andy Bean

We have trailed this story a number of times below, but it has taken a little while to arrive at the following final text. This is a client firm currently involved in fairly serious litigation with the Commission, the outcome of which could potentially have far reaching consequences for the profession:

Solicitor's rights under the General Civil Contract are under threat

It would also place solicitors at risk if they use the contractual dispute resolution procedures such as arbitration: because of the threat of the LSC asserting powers under the Disclosure Regulations to obtain possession of the solicitor's evidence against the LSC-which can scupper the arbitration proceedings and 'punish' the solicitor for asserting its contractual rights to dispute resolution.

Andy Bean [Lead Fieldwork Consultant] writes:

Once again there are more small but irritating changes made to the LSC forms. Many of you should have received your Master Pack Updates with the following Criminal forms updated:

* CDS2
* CDS3
* CDS4
* CDS5

Also, new SPAN code guidance has been issued with a couple of new matter types, one of which is for Family, relating to 'Issues arising from the Civil Partnership Act'.

With regard to Crime, new revised claim and outcome codes have been issued which should be applied to all claims made after the 30th April 2006. These are as follows:

Claim Code: Criminal Proceedings

2S: Magistrates and Crown Court Advocacy Assistance relating to orders under the Sexual Offences Act 2003

Outcome Codes: Criminal Investigations

G1 : Client released following conditional caution
H1 : Client released following issue of fixed penalty notice

With regard to the outcome code E1, the description has now been changed and is now as follows:

E1: Client released following reprimand/warning/simple caution.

Finally, remember this is a new contract year and those of you who use our CDS6 and CMRF generators/wizards can get the updated versions from Sandra at the office, call 01642-225553 or email: jrs@we-are-jrs.co.uk.

Andy Bean [Lead Fieldwork Consultant] writes:

Simon is now away on holiday and very kindly sending me lots of pictures of big pointy things, more commonly known as The Pyramids.

Simon is clearly getting himself acclimatised to the rise in temperature and he will hopefully find this very useful, as clearly back here in wet and windy England, the temperature is also rising as practitioners concerns and frustrations begin to increase.

Based on the number of phone calls I have received over the last week, practitioners are beginning to consider the latest Consultation Paper on the Preferred Supplier Scheme and the implications this may have to their practice. As we have mentioned before, this is not the time to panic but to ensure you are fully and correctly informed of the proposals. Some of the conversations I have had outlined concerns which were based on completely inaccurate information.

As many of you are aware we are holding the CPD training courses on this latest consultation paper and on the equally important subject of Peer Review in April and May, finishing this round in London on 13th June. For larger firms, it might be more cost-effective to consider taking the In-House option for Peer Review, which includes a critical assessment of your files. For details please contact Sandra at our Middlesbrough office on 01642-225553.

But remember, as Corporal Jones would say, "DON"T PANIC".

Cairo, Egypt: Tuesday, 11 April: Simon Pottinger writes:

"The Egyptians do not appear to be very keen on blogging. As yet have been unable to find any internet access. This seems hardly surprising as most of them seem to be engaged in driving around Cairo or in attempts to score money off tourists.

That said, Cairo has been marvellous and the pyramids are truly awe inspiring.

Andy and Sandra will keep you up to date with more prosaic news. Off to Luxor tomorrow."

I'm off for ten days to the land of the Pharoes. Dependant upon internet access I intend to do a little off topic posting largely to make everyone sick at being at work. Andy, Steve and Sandra should add the odd story to keep things ticking over here.

See you soon.

Getting better at the technical side of blogging so here is a picture of our shouting venue this Wednesday taken on my shiny new phone.

With hindsight it might have been a somewhat risky setting for the depressing message many perceive the Carter proposals to be. We did a full head count at the end and all souls were accounted for.

On a positive note whispers reach us this morning that things may not end up quite as bad as they initially seemed.

Another May Day deadline (well nearly).

CDS 6 reporting codes are set for another spring clean. In comes a new claim code 2S for Advocacy Assistance claims for Sex Offender Orders and two new outcome codes G1 & H1. The latter are to be used following a conditional caution and the issue of a fixed penalty, respectively.

There is also a new description of outcome code E1 - "Client released following reprimand/warning/simple caution."

You have to use these first in June when you report Mays work but you can practice on your April claims if you want.

And yes we will be abusing vast amounts of child labour to produce huge quantities of new laminates containing all codes in the near future. Wait for an announcement here before placing your order.

For those who have expressed interest "Abby" (though usually called Tabby) is making a good, if expensive, recovery from unfortunately all to frequent allergy related symptoms. Having had two long walks yesterday (thanks to the longer nights) she is resting on her "sick chair" today. I have passed on good wishes.

Two things struck me about this story yesterday.

I have often made comparisons between NHS policies, needs modelling, procurement strategy, block contracts etc. and the CLS. Here is a fourth direct (pun intended) parallel to CLS, a phone advice service.

Secondly I have something of a reputation for making often accurate, but pessimistic, predictions. My apologies to the staff at CLS Direct. One wonders if there will be quite the same response from the profession were the same to come to pass.

Further to this I was yesterday at a firm where two of the three Duty Solicitors present had somehow slipped through the registration net. We intend to investigate this further however in the meantime any others who have not received a letter should either register online (scrolling down from here to find the form) or contact the Law Society for clarification.

Just mentioned Carter below when this press release arrives from the Association of Major London Criminal Firms.

See what you think.

"The Association of Major London Criminal Law Firms welcomes the
publication of Lord Carter's report on the procurement of Criminal Legal
Defence Services and accepts the analysis that the system is in need of
wholesale reform. The Association supports the restructuring of the
supplier base but remains to be convinced that price competitive
tendering is the best method by which to secure best value. A Better
recognition of the costs drivers that remain outside the influence of
criminal law suppliers would be welcomed. The Associations members
believe that the report represents an interesting challenge and propose
to constructively engage with the Review Team to shape a reformed system
for the delivery of high quality Criminal Defence Services."