Justice Minister (): Today I am laying before
Parliament the Government's Response to the consultation ‘Civil
Legal Aid: Towards A Sustainable Future'.
Civil legal aid providers face serious challenges around staff
retention, profitability, and sustainability, meaning that
support can be hard to access for many of those who need it most.
This is particularly acute in housing and immigration.
The consultation paper was published on 24 January 2025. It
invited responses on proposals to increase civil legal aid fees
for housing & debt (hereafter ‘housing') work, and
immigration & asylum (hereafter ‘immigration') work. It also
sought evidence on potential changes to contractual requirements.
After considering the responses, we have decided to uplift the
rates paid for all housing and immigration legal aid work.
Overall spending in these categories will increase by 24% and 30%
respectively. This represents a significant investment – the
first since 1996 - an increase of £20 million a year once fully
implemented.
Alongside this we are taking steps to simplify and harmonise
certain fees. This will reduce administrative burdens for
providers, simplify billing, and allow them to spend more time
helping their clients.
This investment will help to ensure effective access to justice
for some of the most vulnerable in our society, supporting a more
stable and sustainable legal aid sector – one that is fit for the
future and attracts and retains the brightest and the best
practitioners.
It will also help us deliver our wider government ambitions, with
investment in immigration legal aid vital to supporting this
Government's ambition to end hotel use and increase returns. The
investment in housing legal aid will help ensure a sustainable
sector as we expand housing rights in the Renters' Rights Bill.
The uplifts will be implemented as soon as operationally
possible, at which point we intend to bring forward a Statutory
Instrument to amend the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration)
Regulations 2013 to reflect the fee changes.
Through the consultation, we have also gathered further important
evidence to progress our thinking on potential changes to the
current office and remote advice requirements set out in the
Standard Civil Contract. Using this evidence, we will continue to
review the Standard Civil Contract in these areas and consider
next steps to ensure that we are supporting clients and providers
as effectively as possible in the civil legal aid system.
I will place copies of the consultation response in the Libraries
of the House.
