Policy

28 November, 2006

The Way Ahead – Legal Aid Reform

DCA and LSC set out vision for the future of legal aid

The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and the Legal Services Commission (LSC) have today published Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead setting out how reforms will be made to the legal aid system for both criminal and civil law cases.

The paper follows from consultation on Lord Carter's Review of Legal Aid Procurement that provided a blueprint for moving legal aid to a market-based system involving best value tendering where hourly rates are replaced by fixed and graduated fees.

Legal Aid reform: The Way Ahead re-emphasises the DCA and LSC's commitment to –

  • modernising legal aid by moving to fixed and graduated fees and the longer term introduction of full competition based on quality and price;
  • ensuring that high quality provision is available to those who need it; and
  • ensuring that the legal system remains financially sustainable.

The paper covers both criminal and civil legal aid and introduces a number of changes specific to civil legal aid including –

  • a commitment to the replacement of the current Tailored Fixed Fee (TFF) scheme with a new scheme involving fixed fees;
  • delaying implementation of the introduction of the new fixed fee scheme until October 2007;
  • fixed fees set for each category of law including £164 for welfare benefits cases, £171 for housing, £196 for debt and £225 for employment;
  • disbursements to be paid in addition to the new fixed fees subject to assessment – travel and waiting time are included in the new fixed fees as they are at present;
  • additional legal aid certificate funding being available in some complex cases involving court proceedings;
  • encouraging providers to develop services across a wider range of categories of civil law;
  • payment of a composite rate for housing cases without maintaining the proposed separate fee between homelessness and housing cases;
  • the introduction of national rather than regional fees as proposed in the consultation;
  • a decision not to introduce London/non-London fees;
  • lowering the proposed escape from standard fees for exceptional cases from four times to three times the fee;
  • the need for the LSC to manage contracts in a more proactive way with consultation on criteria for setting contract levels from April 2008 to take place;
  • the removal of the allowance for up to 10% of cases for clients whose legal aid eligibility is not assessed (Level 1);
  • a separate fee for tolerance work based on the average cost of those cases rather than the 15% less than category specific cases proposed in the consultation;
  • a move to paying Not-for-Profit (NfP) providers the same fees as solicitors;
  • NfP providers to be paid for claims rather than hours from October 2007 with the LSC continuing to make payments in advance prior to this change but on a monthly rather than quarterly basis.

In addition the DCA and LSC have addressed a number of other issues including –

  • the LSC having the power to vary fees in order to live within the budget and continue to obtain value for money with a commitment to review the fees at the end of each year to ensure standard fees are working;
  • not implementing the statutory charge at the Legal Help level for TFF replacement cases;
  • the removal of payments for file review after the current claims have been met at the end of 2006;
  • the new Unified Contract, containing revised Standard Terms, will take effect from April 2007 for both solicitor and NfP civil providers;
  • the minimum size contract proposal will not be introduced in April 2007, although the LSC will include a power to introduce a minimum contract in the Standard Terms for the Unified Contract;
  • the quality standard in the Unified Contract will remain as currently set at competence – level 3, although the LSC remains committed to raising standards to competence plus using preferred supplier this will not be introduced in April 2007 as proposed.

The DCA/LSC paper Legal Aid Reform – The Way Ahead is available here.

The post-consultation report Legal Aid: a sustainable future - analysis of responses is available here.

For more background information on Legal Aid reform see the related rightsnet policy news stories -




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