Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the equity of the ability of law firms based in London to recover from the losing side higher rates of legal costs than firms based in the North East of England.
I refer the Rt Hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East to the previously answered PQs 8554 and 10168 in June this year on legal costs recovery: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-05-27/8554; https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-06-04/10168.
On 30 July 2021, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) published its final report proposing revisions to the Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR): https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Civil-Justice-Council-final-report-on-guideline-hourly-rates.pdf. These revisions have been accepted by the Master of the Rolls: https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/master-of-the-rolls-accepts-recommended-changes-to-guideline-hourly-rates/. The process for recovering costs is the same throughout England and Wales.