18.40Under the pressure of a considerable number of legal challenges, the LAA did not go ahead with the two tier contracting arrangements in 2016 which would have seen only a small number of firms eligible to do police duty solicitor work, which is the life-blood of many criminal defence firms. In the event, the tender for contracts to start in April 2017 was mainly a simple registration process, with only new entrants and existing firms bidding for contracts over a certain size needing to supply business plan and financial information.