Criminal legal aid
2024 – rate increases give hope for the future
In December 2024, the UK government announced criminal legal aid rates will increase by an additional 12%.
A 6% rise will follow a consultation, expected this financial year.
A further 6% is committed by the end of this parliament.
This is on top of the 12% secured since 2022.
This fulfills a key recommendation of Lord Bellamy’s independent review.
This follows an increase in November 2024, when the lord chancellor announced increased funding for legal aid solicitors working in police stations and youth courts.
This was made up of:
- £18.5 million to legal aid work carried out in police stations
- £5.1 million to youth court legal aid work for the most serious offences
- £400,000 to reimburse travel time for solicitors who work in areas with fewer than two legal aid providers, as well as the Isle of Wight
The increase is the hard-won result of our 2023 judicial review of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) which challenged the government’s decision not to implement Bellamy’s recommendations in full.
We welcome the new funding, but there is further to go.
Our president, Richard Atkinson, said: “The increase in funding is a welcome step forward that gives solicitors hope that there is a future in providing this vital public service.
“But it is only a step.
“While this means solicitors will have received more than the 15% recommended by the Bellamy review, years of inflation means further progress is needed to deliver a sustainable future.”
We’re calling for regular reviews of criminal legal aid funding once the minimum levels have been achieved as well as increases for prison law work.
What this means for solicitors
Despite the promise of some additional money, there is no guarantee when this will be made available.
In the meantime, firms continue to work at low and potentially deteriorating levels of financial viability.
Firms are still being remunerated at a level significantly lower than the “minimum” recommended by the independent review of criminal legal aid (CLAIR).
We advise individual firms providing legal aid services to carry out ‘viability reviews’ to determine:
- whether they can continue to undertake legally aided police station and court work
- even if they can, whether scaling back is necessary
Read our guide on criminal legal aid work: options your firm should consider now.
January 2024 – we took the government to court
After years of under-funding, the independent review of criminal legal aid (CLAIR) was an opportunity for the MoJ to make sure our justice system works for everyone in society for years to come.
A minimum lifeline of a 15% funding uplift was the key recommendation to keep our struggling criminal legal aid system running.
But the MoJ chose to ignore this recommendation in the final response to the review.
Instead, solicitors received a 9% increase to criminal legal aid funding in 2022, with a promise of a further 2% by 2024. This was a real-terms cut to legal aid rates.
Our judicial review highlighted the MoJ’s decision-making process and why it ignored the minimum recommendations.
The High Court ruled in our favour on the grounds that:
- the government’s decision was irrational
- the lord chancellor did not make proper enquiries before making his decision
Our judicial review victory resulted in a much needed and long-awaited increase to criminal legal aid fees.
However, this is only the beginning. More needs to be done to ensure that this essential public service can continue to help our communities.
2019 to 2024
We welcomed the injection of £16 million into police station and youth court fees but called for more to be done to address the deep-rooted crisis in criminal legal aid.
October 2022 – government set up the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board (CLAAB)
CLAAB was set up to:
- advise the lord chancellor on the operation and structure of existing and future criminal legal aid schemes
- assess how these schemes should adapt to support a high-performing criminal justice system and the wider objectives of the legal profession
The board is chaired by Her Honour Deborah Taylor, appointed in July 2023.
We’ve long been recommending an independent board, although we had hoped that it would also advise on fees.
As a member of the advisory board, we’re working to make sure that the voices of criminal defence solicitors are heard as the MoJ develops its plans for future changes to the criminal legal aid system.
June 2022 – consultations on criminal legal aid and means testing
We responded to government consultations on both criminal legal aid (PDF 672 KB) and the means test (PDF 1.5 MB).
We stressed why it’s vital that the whole sector receives proper and sustainable funding.
May 2022 – questions to minister James Cartlidge
Our head of justice, Richard Miller, put your questions on the proposals to justice minister James Cartlidge.
April 2022 – we voice concerns at parliamentary select committee
Former Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce gave evidence on the crisis to the Justice Select Committee in parliament.
December 2021 – we welcome proposals for pay increase
The independent review proposed a 15% pay increase for criminal legal aid solicitors, following sustained campaigning from the Law Society on behalf of our members.
We continued to press the MoJ to get the money to our members as soon as possible.
May 2021 – we respond to CLAIR call for evidence
We responded to the criminal legal aid independent review (CLAIR) call for evidence (PDF 1.3 MB).
We warned that the criminal defence profession could collapse if the government does not increase funding.
February 2021 – data compendium on publicly funded legal services
The MoJ Criminal Legal Aid Review (CLAR) team published a data compendium, summarising information on publicly funded legal services.
We worked with the MoJ to combine key datasets, along with the Bar Council, the Legal Aid Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service.
December 2020 – we call for government support for legal aid firms
The MoJ announced that the second phase of the review would be chaired by Lord Christopher Bellamy KC, launching in January 2021 with a report expected before the end of the year.
We welcomed the launch of the next stage of the CLAR.
However, we were clear that government support is needed for criminal legal aid firms to survive, in addition to the structural increase in resources needed for the long-term sustainability of the sector.
January 2021 – pre-charge engagement fee consultation
We responded to the MoJ consultation on the fee to be paid to solicitors for ‘pre-charge engagement’ (PCE).
This was the final part of the ‘accelerated items’ brought forward as part of the CLAR.
This could not be included in the 2020 consultation as the attorney general was consulting on revisions to the Guidelines on Disclosure.
These provide the framework for pre-charge engagement.
Revised guidelines came into force at the end of 2020.
Read our consultation response (PDF 301 KB)
Read the consultation documents
Read the attorney general’s guidelines (Annex B)
August 2020 – accelerated items consultation update
In August 2020, the MoJ published its response to the accelerated items consultation.
The MoJ announced that all the proposals in the consultation paper would go ahead, except that as a result of representations made in our response, the fee for sent cases would be increased from two hours' work to four hours.
Whilst this represented a small injection of much-needed funds into criminal legal aid, it did not go far enough to begin to address the problems faced by criminal legal aid firms and practitioners, all of which have been worsened by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
June 2020 – our response to the CLAR fees scheme review
We voiced concerns that the proposals in this consultation undermined the government’s objectives of improving the functioning of the criminal justice system.
We were disappointed to see that the interim proposals do not go far enough to prevent the crisis in the provision of criminal legal aid to those who need it.
Read our full response (PDF 460 KB)
We also submitted a supplementary response (PDF 173KB), raising concerns about:
- the reduction in the value of the package due to the drop in activity in the system following the coronavirus outbreak
- the even more urgent need for additional support for legal aid solicitors
February 2020 – ‘accelerated items’ announced are insufficient
We were encouraged that the MoJ was considering accelerating some of the urgent changes required to secure the sustainability of the profession.
However, when the MoJ announced more information, we felt the accelerated items would not do enough to secure the short-term sustainability of the profession.
We published details of our concerns as well as information on how members could help make our voice heard.
November 2019 – impact of general election on the review
We had expected an interim set of announcements in November 2019 as part of the accelerated work in the criminal legal aid review.
Due to the December 2019 general election, announcements could not take place in November 2019 as originally expected.
Alongside our criminal justice campaign, the Law Society and others had fed evidence into the review to ensure that our serious concerns about the sustainability of the criminal justice system were understood.
July 2019 – review workplan accelerated
The MoJ accelerated its review work plan of criminal legal aid fees in key areas we lobbied on.
March 2019 – review starts
The MoJ began its review of criminal legal aid fees, which was due to report at the end of 2020.
Learn more
Everyone has the right to legal advice if they are arrested, free of charge.
But that right is under threat without enough duty solicitors to cover police station interviews across England and Wales.
Fewer and fewer duty solicitors are available to help due to cuts to legal aid fees.
Find out why duty solicitors are struggling
Resources: