Explanatory note

This instrument amends Schedule 2 to the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/435) (the “Remuneration Regulations”). The Remuneration Regulations provide for the remuneration of advice, assistance and representation made available under sections 13, 15 and 16 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (c. 10) (“LASPO”). Schedule 2 contains the Litigators’ Graduated Fee Scheme, which governs the fees payable to providers of criminal litigation services in the Crown Court that are made available to an individual in criminal proceedings as a result of a determination under section 16 of LASPO that the individual is eligible for legal aid.

Litigators are paid a single fee, known as a graduated fee, for dealing with a criminal legal aid case. This fee is calculated principally by reference to the number of pages served by the prosecution as evidence (Pages of Prosecution Evidence or “PPE”), subject to a cut-off threshold. If the PPE exceeds the threshold, paragraph 20 of Schedule 2 to the Remuneration Regulations provides that a claim may be made for “special preparation”, which is an additional fee based on the time reasonably taken to consider the evidence exceeding the cut-off threshold.

Regulation 2 amends Schedule 2 to the Remuneration Regulations to reduce the cut-off threshold from 10,000 to 6,000 PPE. It also substitutes three tables relating to fees for cracked trials, guilty pleas and trials to reflect the new threshold.

Regulation 3 provides that these Regulations do not apply to services provided as a result of a determination under section 16 of LASPO that was made before these Regulations came into force.

A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector is available from the Ministry of Justice, 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ and is published with an Explanatory Memorandum alongside the instrument on https://legislation.gov.uk.