The Bar Council has welcomed the proposed additional £20 million a year investment in legal aid for housing and immigration after both areas were identified in the Bar Council’s evidence as being of particular concern.
The government has announced that this will be the first funding increase for civil legal aid since 1996.
A consultation will be launched in January. For housing and immigration, the government will consult on proposals to increase fees to a rate in the region of £65/£69 per hour (non-London/London), or provide a 10% uplift, whichever is higher. Fixed fees will be uplifted by an amount proportional to the increase in the underlying hourly rate for that work. This will be implemented in 2025-26 with costs scaling up to £20m by 2027-28.
Fees for other civil legal aid categories are under consideration and proposals will be included as part of the second phase of the spending review, due in Spring 2025.
Responding to today’s announcement, Chair of the Bar Council Sam Townend KC, said:
“For decades the civil legal aid sector has been starved of funds to save money. But the cuts have impacted access to justice for children, families and vulnerable adults, as well as increasing overall public spending costs.
“The announcement of new funding for housing and immigration is long overdue. This money is welcome as a first step, but we know further investment will be needed. We will consider the detailed proposals in the consultation and, particularly, whether the investment will be sufficient to stem the exodus of practitioners from these vital areas of work.
“In our submission to the review of civil legal aid we called for urgent investment, recognising that the Bar’s goodwill had been taken for granted for far too long. That urgency remains – there is a real crisis now as a result of decades of underinvestment in these sectors. Capacity will take time to rebuild so we must start as soon as possible.”
Read our submission to the review of civil legal aid call for evidence (February 2024)
Read our data analysis for the review of civil legal aid (February 2024)