Legal aid: funding reforms
Status: Closed - with response
Open date: 20 August 2009
Close date: 12 November 2009
Responses published: 16 December 2009
A consultation seeking views on proposals to reform the fees paid to litigators and advocates in publicly-funded criminal cases and measures to reduce spending on experts' fees in all legal aid cases.
Consultation paper
- Legal aid funding reforms: consultation paper (PDF 0.81mb 74 pages)
- Legal aid funding reforms: list of questions for response (Word 0.10mb 4 pages)
Letter to Law Society
A letter from Legal Aid Minister Lord Bach to the Law Society provides further clarification on some of the terms used in the consultation.
- Lord Bach letter to the Law Society (PDF 0.04mb 3 pages)
Response: payments to solicitors and barristers for criminal legal aid work
Excluding the responses that concerned experts' fees only, we received over 300 responses, mainly from solicitors and barristers undertaking publicly-funded criminal defence work. Most of the respondents opposed the proposal to reduce payments for criminal defence work.
- Legal aid funding reforms: consultation response (PDF 0.14mb 52 pages)
- Changes to police station fees: impact assessment (PDF 0.16mb 20 pages)
- Single fixed fee for committals for trial: impact assessment (PDF 0.06mb 8 pages)
- Legal aid funding reforms: equalities impact assessment (PDF 0.06mb 10 pages)
Published on 16 December 2009
Response: experts' fees
We received 270 responses to the part of the consultation paper on experts’ fees. The majority of respondents considered that the proposed hourly rates set out in the consultation paper were too low. We intend to undertake additional analysis and work closely with stakeholders to help inform future policy on this complex area.
- Legal aid funding reforms: experts' fees response (PDF 0.11mb 28 pages)
Sign up for consultations updates
Enter email:
Contact us
Tel: 020 3334 4237
Email
Post:
Jackie HartleyCivil Justice and Legal Aid Division
Ministry of Justice