The Ministry of Justice’s consultation, ‘Civil legal aid: towards a sustainable future’, closed last week. The £20m boost would be the first increase in civil legal aid in 30 years, despite a 96.8% rise in the consumer price index in that time.
The Bar Council’s response emphasises the technical complexity of housing and immigration law, and increased demands on practitioners arising from client vulnerability. It calls for counsel to be paid hourly rates rather than a fixed fee and for travel and waiting time, and highlights the contrast between the proposed fees and the rates the government pays when it instructs civil barristers in non-legal aid work.
It states: ‘It is not clear how the government paying half the rate for doing legal aid work than it does for doing non-legal aid work, encourages “the best and brightest” to do legal aid work.’
Barbara Mills KC, chair of the Bar Council, said: ‘A significantly greater uplift is required to genuinely create sustainability and adequately address the complexity of immigration and housing work.
‘We’re calling for regular independent fee reviews to ensure parity with broader market rates to attract and retain talented legal professionals into this vital work. This is a critical area where we believe the government should spend now to save future costs.
‘Evidence shows that early legal support prevents problems escalating with increased costs to the taxpayer.’
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: ‘Raising the rates is welcome, however the government admits this would still leave a quarter of housing legal aid providers unable to help people who desperately need advice.’ Atkinson said a 95% rise would be needed to restore legal aid fees to the 1996 levels in real terms.
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