A £2 million fee uptick for legal representation is still pending implementation
UK courts minister Sarah Sackman pointed to poor information technology system investment as the reason why some announced legal aid fee increases have yet to be implemented, reported the Law Society Gazette.
According to the government, the systems failed to backdate the fee uplifts publicized last year. While the increases have been enforced for “controlled” housing, immigration, and asylum work – which mainly involve early legal advice provision – a £2 million fee increase for “licensed” work that involves legal representation is still pending implementation.
The Ministry of Justice’s joint director for legal aid and legal support, Farah Ziaulla, told the House of Commons justice select committee that the department could not provide an implementation date in the wake of the cyberattack that rocked the Legal Aid Agency last year. She also told committee member Pam Cox MP that the increases would be enforced with a “forward-looking and not retrospective” approach, per a statement published by the Gazette.
Sackman added that 30-40 percent of providers’ time was spent on “wrestling with our dreadful systems” and said the uplifts were “incredibly difficult to backdate and do it retrospectively,” per a statement published by the Gazette.
“We’re dancing a little around this issue, around the underlying system. Every time government announces a fee change or uplift, it’s incredibly difficult to implement. And there’s a very simple reason for that. That’s because of years of people who sat in my position ducking the big decisions around investment in what are absolutely atrocious legacy systems,” Sackman told Cox in a statement published by the Gazette.
Sackman also touched on the Legal Aid Agency’s call for housing and debt providers in 45 procurement areas, saying that the flexibility of contracting had improved and thus providers could enter the market at different stages of a procurement cycle.
“The principle is one of ‘no postcode lottery.’ The procurement is healthy to provide coverage such that some of the language around ‘deserts’ I don’t think is hugely helpful,” the courts minister said in statement published by the Gazette.
Earlier this year, Sackman announced that legal aid solicitors would not receive compensation for losses related to the cyberattack.
