Fee rises and more cases raise legal aid bill by 14%
Reform is essential to the legal aid system is essential if it is to continue providing vital support, the Scottish Legal Aid Board said today as it published its annual report for 2022-23.
Over the year, the total cost of providing legal assistance increased by 14% on the previous year to £135m. An increase in cases paid, combined with the impact of successive 5% increases in fee rates implemented in April 2021 and April 2022, led to the rise.
The number of civil legal aid cases paid increased by 9%, summary criminal legal aid by 15% and solemn criminal legal aid by 13%, which SLAB said was "a clear indicator of the work being done to reduce Covid backlogs across the justice system".
Total grants of legal assistance however fell by 2% to 162,100. Grants of criminal ABWOR (assistance by way of representation) increased by 6%, but grants of summary criminal legal aid decreased by 3% to 35,800, 13% lower than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20, and grants of solemn criminal legal aid decreased by 2% to 12,100, 9% higher than in 2019-20.
Expenditure on solemn criminal legal aid rose 16% to £34m, and on summary criminal legal aid by 28% to £27m.
Grants of full civil legal aid decreased by 3% to 13,100, continuing the general downward trend in recent years, and total grants of advice and assistance by 2% to 43,600 (making a 29% fall in the last five years). As with last year, there was a marked difference between family and non-family matters. In family matters, applications for civil legal aid fell 9% to 8,100 and grants of civil legal aid were down 12% at 6,500. Applications for non-family matters increased by 9% to 7,600 and grants for non-family matters increased 9% to 6,700, the latter driven by an 11% rise in adults with incapacity cases.
Net civil legal assistance expenditure totalled £47.5m, up 13% in the previous year, with family disputes accounting for 53% of that.
The number of children’s advice and assistance grants decreased 10% to 2,500, and grants of children’s ABWOR decreased 2% to 4,100. Grants of children’s legal aid cases decreased 16% to 1,500. Total spending was just on £5m.
SLAB chief executive Colin Lancaster said the legal aid system had continued to provide much-needed and often life-changing support to thousands of people across Scotland despite all that the last few years had thrown at it – but reform was key to ensuring that legal aid fulfilled its potential to make a major contribution to the Scottish Government’s Vision for Justice.
What was required was a collaborative approach to developing legislation to ensure the system was both sustainable and responsive to today's needs.
"Legal aid is just one part of a rich but complex, and at times inconsistent, pattern of provision," he commented.
"There is no mechanism for connecting need, demand and supply, or of targeting resources at priority issues, or securing a consistent level of services in any given place or for a particular type of problem."
He added: “It would be truly remarkable if a system designed over 70 years ago was able to respond effectively to the range of problems we see today or encompass what we have learned about patterns of need, user focus, and trauma-informed, joined-up models of service delivery.
"That kind of change needs new primary legislation, and I am hopeful that will be forthcoming soon."
The Scottish Government's 2023-24 Programme for Government however contained no mention of legal aid reform.
Mr Lancaster also highlighted the evidence sent by the Minister to the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee during the year. This included evidence about the history of fee negotiations, the clear links between trends in crime, court business, legal aid expenditure and the numbers of solicitors conducting legal aid work, and the challenges in recruitment and retention reported by the legal profession.
He observed: "This type of evidence does not get enough exposure, and without it the important debate about what is actually a very complex and nuanced series of interconnected issues – many of which also affect the wider legal profession and indeed other sectors altogether – can be oversimplified.
"Important though it undoubtedly is, remuneration is not the only issue worthy of attention, and nor is it the root cause of or solution to every other issue."
The annual report and additional documents, including key statistics, are available on the SLAB website.