Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what legislation or guidelines determine who should pay the cost of counsel when a court case is adjourned the night before that trial is scheduled to take place.

For publicly funded criminal legal aid work, payment for the trial advocate (or counsel) in the Crown Court is determined in accordance with fees set out in Schedule 1 of The Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013. The Crown Court Fee Guidance published by the Legal Aid Agency provides further guidance.

Paragraph 16, Schedule 1 of the Remuneration Regulations states that an ineffective trial fixed fee is payable in respect of each day on which the case was listed for trial but did not proceed on the day for which it was listed, for whatever reason. The fee payable is set out at paragraph 24 of Schedule 1 of the Regulations and there are different fees according to the category of advocate instructed in the trial.