Another branch of publicly-funded law is the Salaried Defence Service. The following extract explains the background to recent developments.

Gary Slapper, 'The Salaried Defence Service' (2001) 32 SLR 29 Plans for the new Salaried Defence Service (SDS) are now more than under way. The easiest way to comprehend this new institution is to see it as a counterpart to the Crown Prosecution Service, in other words an organisation of lawyers who are paid a salary by the state in order to defend defendantswhereas the CPS is the same thing but with the purpose of prosecuting defendants. Adverts recently appeared in the legal press seeking six lawyers to be the 'pioneers of a radical far reaching initiative', and the Legal Services Commission (LSC) is now interviewing candidates selected from more than 100 applicants.