Ever since it was confirmed that the Ministry of Justice had had 13,000 responses to its ‘Transforming Legal Aid’ consultation, there has been puzzlement about how it would manage to read them all. But this being our trusty government, it surely would find a way, wouldn’t it…?
This belief was shaken on Friday evening when some of the lawyers who’d submitted consultation responses began receiving this email — which several subsequently posted screenshots of to Twitter (click to enlarge).
Thankfully, the MoJ has since confirmed that “all consultation responses received are being read”, with the email caused by an “IT error” that is “generating an incorrect message in a small number of cases”.
Not that everyone is entirely convinced by this explanation.
@MoJGovUK @CrimeLineLaw I'm afraid the integrity of the reading/analysis of the responses is called into question. Who believes MoJ reply?
— Julian Young (@TheLWA) June 30, 2013
Certainly, it will be interesting to see the results of an FOI request as to the number of MoJ staff hours spent reading the consultation responses.
Looking forward to @MoJGovUK response to FOI request for staff hours spent "reading" consultation responses!
— The CBA (@TheCriminalBar) June 30, 2013
