Andy Slaughter – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has further plans to expand the Public Defender Service beyond the first phase of recruits.

Mr Shailesh Vara

We are still concluding the recruitment campaign from 20 January 2014 and expect some further appointments to the PDS to be confirmed as a result of that.

In the current circumstances the Government will take the necessary steps to ensure availability of representation in Very High Cost Cases in which legally aided defendants are currently unrepresented. This could include increasing the capacity of the Public Defender Service. It remains open to the self-employed Bar to accept instructions on these cases, and we would welcome the maximum possible participation of the self-employed Bar in this regard.