Bar Council reaction to Lord Chancellor's AGFS announcement
26 November 2018
Responding to the Lord Chancellor's announcement during Saturday's
Bar Council Annual Conference of more funding for the Advocates'
Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS) Andrew Walker QC, Chair of the
Bar, said:
"The Lord Chancellor's announcement that there will be further
funding for the Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS), following
the recent consultation, is welcome. So too are his comments about
the future - about the scope to improve the way in which criminal
defence advocates are paid, and his commitment to working together
with the professions to make criminal advocacy
sustainable.
"To hear a Lord Chancellor emphasise the need to make criminal
practice sustainable, so that people from all backgrounds can enjoy
a decent career doing such important work, signals what we hope
will prove to be a critical moment in the Bar's relationship with
the Ministry of Justice, not least because it shows that the
Ministry has listened to the concerns expressed strongly and
resolutely by the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association
about the effects of underfunding on the criminal Bar and access to
justice.
"We also recognise that other steps have already been taken -
particularly the abandonment of flexible operating hours pilots in
crime, the piloting of a professional entry (ID card) scheme, and
the commitment to working with the Bar in relation to the
disclosure of unused material in criminal prosecutions - which show
the Ministry's willingness to take additional concrete measures
towards improving working conditions, and giving the Criminal Bar
the recognition and respect that it has long deserved.
"The bringing forward of the one per cent increase to all fees,
to coincide with when the other increases take effect, rather than
from April next year, is also an important gesture of goodwill on
the part of the Ministry, which recognises that the process has
taken longer than originally understood.
"We have been able to maintain a constructive dialogue with the
Ministry through a very difficult period, and we look forward to
building on that in the discussions that lie ahead towards the
further review of the AGFS to which the Ministry is committed.
Those discussions have already begun. There is much more yet to be
done, and our work with the Ministry to find ways to address the
outstanding, very real concerns of the Criminal Bar will also start
now. So, too, will the work that we urgently need to do with
the Ministry and others to press the case of the whole of our
justice system where it matters most: with the Treasury."
ENDS