Legal Aid Scheme

(asked on 20th September 2022) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing legal aid fees for written work by 25 per cent.


Answered by
Gareth Johnson Portrait
Gareth Johnson
This question was answered on 3rd October 2022

The criminal legal aid independent review recommended that funding for criminal legal aid should be increased overall for both solicitors and barristers as soon as possible to an annual level, in a steady state, of at least 15% above present levels.

On 20 July, the Government published its interim response and laid a statutory instrument to implement a 15% uplift to most fee schemes, which will come into force for new representation orders from 30 September 2022. Criminal legal aid practitioners will start to receive the pay increase from October 2022 onwards for their work on these cases. The increases we are implementing from 30 September 2022 are on top of the £74m we have invested in criminal legal aid over the last 4 years.

Following discussions with the Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association and the Law Society the MoJ have put forward a range of proposals, including funding for existing cases. These include:

  • The introduction of a fee of 15% on AGFS and up to 15% on LGFS for existing cases where the main hearing takes place after the commencement of the Statutory Instrument that brings this new arrangement into force.
  • In addition to this, there is the injection of an additional £4m over the Spending Review period via the provision of an additional brief fee or bolt-on fee to increase remuneration levels for advocates undertaking s28 hearings; An additional £3m of new funding for special and wasted preparation and as set out in the Government’s response to the Criminal Legal Aid.

My officials are currently developing our detailed response to our consultation following the criminal legal aid independent review, which includes longer term reform of the fee schemes and how payment for written work is claimed so that they properly reflect the way legal professionals work today. We will outline next steps in our full response to the consultation, which we expect to publish later this year. This will also include our proposals to:

  • Reform fee schemes so they properly reflect the way legal professionals work today.
  • Invest in a diverse and sustainable profession.
  • Create an Advisory Board, although CLAIR recommended that the Board should not be a pay review body.
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