Denise Swanson heads up the Access to Justice Unit in Scottish Government Justice Directorate.   The unit has policy responsibility for helping people to resolve problems and disputes in their lives and support their criminal defence, through the provision of advice and representation at t,he right time and in the right place, ensuring that advice meets quality standards and that there are suitable avenues for redress.
In practice this means my Unit leads on legal aid policy, the regulation of solicitors, Scottish Government funding of advice services, quality assurance of those advice services and the complaints process for legal services This also includes policy lead for early and effective dispute resolution.  The Unit is supporting an independent review of legal aid and Denise attends these meetings as the Scottish Government representative.