Legal Aid update

Our Legal Aid Committee has been extremely active recently - our Criminal Legal Aid Committee Convener, Ian Moir and Civil Legal Aid Committee Convener, Peter Walsh provide a summary of what's been keeping them busy.

We have received two proposals from the Minister for Victims and Community Safety to uplift criminal legal aid fees. The first proposal included a three-year phased uplift of the summary core fixed fee of 9% and a public commitment to taking forward a review of fees, with a fee review model in place by the end of the three-year settlement period.

The proposal was for the summary fixed fee only and did not include an uplift for civil legal aid fees or a financial commitment to support the Traineeship Fund.

Following discussion with our Legal Aid Committee, we told the Minister that this proposal was unacceptable and followed up with a joint letter with the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA) providing further details on our position.

We then received an informal, revised proposal on 20 June offering a 10% uplift in summary criminal legal aid fixed payments over three years; recommencement of a Traineeship Fund, potentially for 20 individuals; and the establishment of a Fee Review Mechanism Group by the end of 2025.

There was no increase on any other criminal fees proposed and the proposed uplift excluded holiday court supplement pay.

Again, we could not support this proposal and wrote a joint letter with the SSBA to the Minister making our position clear.

• The Law Society of Scotland’s position on legal aid fees is quite clear - we call on the Scottish Government to provide the following as a matter of urgency:
• A double-digit, across-the-board uplift in civil and criminal legal aid fees (which goes beyond offsetting years of underinvestment and inflation).
• A commitment to develop a fee review mechanism and introduce regular reviews for both civil and criminal legal aid fees, and a commitment to reinstate the impactful Traineeship Fund at the previous level (as a minimum).

We issued a press release that highlighted our recently published research into legal aid. Key findings from our research include the following.

• 41% of respondents plan to stop legal aid work within two years or are unsure whether they will continue.
• 90% of legal aid work is undertaken by firms with fewer than 10 solicitors.
• Nearly half of criminal legal aid work is handled by firms with only one or two solicitors.
• 5% of legal aid payments are made to rural firms, despite 29% of Scotland’s population living in those areas, confirming the extent of legal aid deserts.
• Many solicitors feel morally obliged to offer legal aid, in part due to a lack of alternatives for clients.
• An estimated one-third of criminal legal aid solicitors are due to retire within the next 10 years.

You can access the full analysis of the research on our website.

Following Pat Thom’s giving oral evidence at the Scottish Parliament Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee Inquiry into civil legal aid on 13 May, she provided two blogs: on her own oral evidence session and an assessment of the next two sessions.

We also wrote a joint letter to the Committee convener (with the Scottish Association of Law Centres (SALC)) to emphasise the urgent need for an increase in legal aid fees.

The inquiry evidence gathering phase has now ended and we are awaiting publication of the final report.

The #LegalAidMatters campaign continues to raise awareness of the sectoral issues with the public and why they should see legal aid as an important issue for them.
We have over 900 pledge signatories.

You can find out more about the campaign on our website.

We will continue to engage with the Scottish Government, SLAB and other stakeholders to address the underfunding of legal aid and the impact this is having on access to justice across Scotland. We will continue to keep you updated on our work in this area. If you would like to contact us directly, please email legalaid@lawscot.org.uk.