Solicitors in Tayside and Fife have voted to bail out of a controversial police station duty scheme.
The new legislation, which comes into force on Thursday, will entitle anyone in custody to legal advice and not just those who are being interviewed by police.
The revised police station duty scheme was triggered by a 2010 UK Supreme Court Ruling which found it was a breach of an accused’s human rights to deny them access to a solicitor during a police interview.
However, a wave of lawyers have opted out of the scheme across Scotland, including solicitors who are part of Angus, Dundee and Dunfermline local law faculties.
Mike Ferrie, Dean of the Society of Procurators and Solicitors of Angus – the latest to pull out – said it was with “a great deal of regret” that all of the criminal practitioners of Angus have found it necessary to unanimously withdraw.
He said: “Our members’ frustrations are directed towards decades worth of chronic underfunding and demoralising terms and conditions imposed by the Scottish Government via the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB).
“In recent years, the profession has been wearied to such an extent with the decreasing value of legal aid work that many firms, including Angus firms, have pulled out of providing both criminal and civil legal aid altogether.”
Mr Ferrie said the SLAB had brought the criminal legal aid system “to a state of breakdown”.
Solicitors in Kirkcaldy and Perth have apparently yet to opt out but there is still time for them to do so before the new rules kick in on Thursday.
Ian Moir, convener of the Law Society of Scotland Legal Aid Committee said it highlighted to the Scottish Government the likelihood of significant increases in the number of requests for a solicitor’s attendance and the implications of solicitors being expected to provide legal advice at police stations around the clock.
He said: “The proposed rates of legal aid also fall well short of what we consider to be fair and reasonable.
“It is for individual solicitors and their firms to decide whether to take part in the police station duty scheme and we explained to Ministers that there was a risk of solicitors choosing to opt out of the scheme.”
A spokesman for the SLAB, which will manage the new scheme, said:
A spokesperson for the Scottish Legal Aid Board said: “We understand the concerns some solicitors have about managing requests for advice in police stations alongside the other demands of running their businesses.
“The volume of calls solicitors can expect from their own clients will depend on the size of their current client base. There is no obligation on solicitors to respond to requests for such advice.
“Support will be available through the services provided by the Solicitor Contact Line and the support of the duty scheme for police station attendances.
“For the duty scheme itself we expect, for example, that solicitors on the duty plan for the Forfar Sheriff Court district will be asked to attend once a week under the new arrangements.
“If solicitors in particular areas choose not to do police station work and so don’t claim the funding available that money will be used to meet the cost of alternative means of providing advice in those areas, such as employed solicitors or other arrangements to make advice available.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The regulations approved by the Scottish Parliament will lead to an enhanced fee package for solicitors who provide police station advice.
“The scheme, underpinned by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, is voluntary, with solicitors putting themselves forward to provide advice for those who are held in police stations.
“It is essential that no individual is denied access to their rights to legal advice and that right will be delivered by employed solicitors who currently provide the service and private solicitors that opt to remain on the duty scheme.”
