Legal aid: audit and QA issues
16 Sep 04
Scottish Legal Aid Board inspectors have been interpreting regulations in a different way from the Society as respects time recording
It has come to the Society’s attention that at the most recent round of inspections under the registration procedure the Scottish Legal Aid Board’s inspectors appear to have been interpreting the regulations on advice & assistance and fixed fee cases in a different way, resulting in adverse comments being made in respect of time recording. On a number of occasions this has led to requests for repayment of money or unsatisfactory audit outcomes being recorded against the firms. Oliver Adair, Vice Convener of the Legal Aid Committee with responsibility for criminal matters has written to the Chief Executive of SLAB seeking a meeting to clarify these issues, but if any other practitioner has had similar experiences please contact the Society right away so that any outstanding issues can be addressed at the proposed meeting.
The Society should also make it clear that interpretations of the regulations notified by SLAB in The Recorder do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society.
On the new civil legal aid quality assurance scheme, the memorandum of understanding between the Society and SLAB, which will set out the detail of the scheme has not yet been finalised, or approved by Council. Full details will appear in a forthcoming edition of the Journal and on the Society’s website, following approval of the memorandum by Council.
Should practitioners have any queries, please contact Susan Angus on 0131 476 8147 or susanangus@lawscot.org.uk.