Explanatory note

This Order amends the Criminal Defence Service (Funding) Order 2007. It removes references to the Very High Cost Case Contract and the Very High Cost Case (Crime) Panel which no longer exist. It makes further reductions in the fees paid for Crown Court cases.

Fixed fees for the provision of funded services in magistrates’ courts are brought within the ambit of the 2007 Order for the first time by the new article 4A and a new Schedule 5 inserted in the 2007 Order.

New article 15A and a new Schedule 6 provide, again for the first time in the 2007 Order, fixed fees and hourly rates to be paid for the type of expert services listed in that schedule.

The Order removes a sentencing hearing from the list of hearings for which a separate fixed fee is payable and includes it as a standard appearance. The Order introduces fixed fees payable for a cracked trial or guilty plea where a case is committed to the Crown Court for trial at the election of the defendant. Consequential amendments are made in the provisions dealing with transfer of cases. In respect of a cracked trial or guilty plea in other cases, the graduated fees are reduced by 25%.

The Order removes the separate fee payable for committal hearings which will no longer be payable.

The fees payable for murder and manslaughter cases are aligned with those payable for rape and other serious sexual offences and all offences of dishonesty, where the value involved is less than £100,000, will in future be remunerated at the same rate.