In any system delivering professional services, whether they be legal or even auditing services, there first must be a definition of what is meant by quality. It could involve things like the time taken to respond to clients' needs, or knowing whether decisions were made that went counter to the advice given. There are different ways of doing it.
We noted in the report that the Department of Justice had several elements of a quality system. It devotes a lot of attention to the quality of the services it offers. We are looking for an overall system that can assure senior management specifically that its quality system is being followed up and that processes are in place. For example, it could involve reviews by senior personnel, or an assessment of the level of risk in each file. Systems must therefore be in place that consider the risk and the level of supervision required, and so on, as well as a system to check that the system is working as intended.