Press Release
New legal aid rates for magistrates’ courts
19 December 2006
As announced in Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead, from April 2007 the Legal Services Commission will implement revised standard fees for solicitors working in magistrates’ courts in the main urban areas including London, Birmingham and Manchester. The revised standard fees include payments for travel and waiting.
The new fee structure will be implemented initially in urban areas so that the LSC can measure the exceptional costs outside these centres and, if necessary, put in place mechanisms to deal with them before implementing standard fees in the rest of England and Wales.
The new rates are part of a package of changes to how legal aid services are purchased. These are designed to ensure that the system has a sustainable future and are based on Lord Carter’s proposals earlier in the year and the consultation which followed.
The areas where the revised standard fees will be implemented were selected after analysing the number and cost of magistrates’ court claims, the total number of residents and the population density.
The fees will be brought into the Greater Manchester, London, Merseyside and West Midlands Criminal Justice Areas, as well as the Local or Unitary Authority areas of Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby & Erewash, Kingston-Upon-Hull, Leeds & Bradford, Leicester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne & Sunderland (including Gateshead, North Tyneside, Blyth Valley and South Tyneside), Nottingham, Portsmouth & Gosport, Sheffield and Southampton.
Derek Hill, the Legal Services Commission’s Criminal Defence Service Director said: “By standardising payments for travel and waiting in the magistrates’ courts the Legal Services Commission is acting on Lord Carter's recommendations to ensure a sustainable future for legal aid that is fair to clients, practitioners and taxpayers.
“The majority of people who responded to our consultation agreed that reform of the system was required and the LSC has committed to introducing schemes in a way which is sensitive to regional variations.
“We are proposing for the present to introduce these fees only in areas where the volumes of work give the greatest scope for providers to introduce more efficient working practices.
“Going forward we will introduce competitively tendered contracts starting in October 2008, earlier than originally planned, so that service providers will be able to bid for work in a way which reflects their own costs once they have had a chance to assess their cost base and make efficiencies under fixed fees.”
The revised standard fees will apply to all work done by providers based in the areas and all work done in courts in these areas, even if the providers are based outside those areas.
If the claim would be below the lower limit, it would be the lower standard fee.
The table below sets out the revised standard fees:
| Category | Lower Standard Fee | Lower Limit | Higher Standard Fee | Higher Limit | |
| London | 1 | £284.35 | £382.90 | £611.15 | £646.85 |
| London | 2 | £484.60 | £651.00 | £1005.49 | £1041.60 |
| London | 3 | £406.46 | £548.25 | £888.85 | £841.55 |
| National | 1 | £221.59 | £298.45 | £477.41 | £517.10 |
| National | 2 | £378.46 | £512.70 | £792.71 |
£854.40 |
| National | 3 | £357.87 | £452.20 | £734.56 | £789.50 |
Note: Figures are exclusive of VAT.
In addition the LSC is consulting on changes to its General Criminal Contract that are necessary to implement the revised fees. The consultation will end on 9 February 2007 and details can be found on the Criminal Consultation pages.
ENDS
Media information
Daniel Kellingley 020 7759 0415
Notes to editors
A media summary of the legal aid reforms set out in Legal Aid Reform: The Way Ahead is available from the LSC Press Office.
Copies of Legal Aid Reform: The Way Ahead are available from the Consultations pages.
Last updated: 28 December 2006