Hansard

The PDSO was established prior to the current Administration coming into office. Since then, I have said that I will expand the PDSO only where there are clear gaps or public contingencies, and preferably with the consent of the profession. I understand that about 80 per cent of cases will be dealt with by the solicitor of choice, which will not be the PDSO. As I say, discussions are on-going with the Scottish Legal Aid Board and the criminal legal aid committee of the Law Society. The duty plan is not due out until July, so at the moment we are talking about subordinate legislation laying out the framework for duty plans. The matter is on-going and I appreciate the concern that has been raised.Some currently enshrined aspects of the solicitor of choice require to be changed. Olly Adair and others have advised me that, at the moment, if an accused says that their agent is to be Robert Brown, for example, the police are duty bound by that and cannot pass the accused on to somebody in another firm. We must introduce some flexibility to enable somebody else to see that individual, although, equally, they will remain the client of their solicitor of choice. It is about providing flexibility. It involves the PDSO, but it also involves changing fundamentally how the Law Society views the matter. With the Cadder judgment resulting in more call-outs to police stations, there is a desire among a lot of lawyers not to have to deal with every one of those call-outs. When they have a social and family life, they want to ensure that they are not called out every night.