Ministers are to announce at least a 10% increase in legal aid fees for immigration and housing work after action by lawyers who warned that the failure to increase rates had led to a paralysis in the system.
Asylum work fees in England and Wales have not increased since 1996, with hourly rates for lawyers stuck at £52. Rates will now increase to £69 in London and £65 outside London, or a 10% rise – whichever is higher – for housing, debt, asylum and immigration work. Fixed-rate fees will also be increasing in proportion with the increase in hourly rates, and lawyers say the increase could be as much as 29%.
Fees for immigration and asylum work have effectively reduced by almost half in real terms since 1996. Lawyers currently receive a fixed rate of £413 for initial claims.
While the previous government said increases in legal aid rates were unaffordable, the delays in the system led to a huge increase in costs in continuing to accommodate asylum seekers in hotels. Those people were unable to present their asylum claims properly without lawyers to represent them, which hugely increased delays in the appeals process that has also cost the government more money.
Due to the very low legal aid rates, many lawyers had abandoned legal aid work, making it more difficult for those in need of legal representation in the housing and immigration sectors to find a lawyer at all.
Duncan Lewis solicitors launched judicial review proceedings challenging the government’s failure to increase legal aid rates and agreed to settle the claim when the new government agreed to consult on increasing rates. Alongside the 10% uplift, the government will launch a full consultation on the rates increase in January 2025.
The government hopes this funding boost will help to clear a large backlog of asylum cases and appeals.
The shortage of legal representation has caused appeals to take an average of 46 weeks, leaving tens of thousands of asylum seekers in limbo. By September, nearly 63,000 cases were awaiting resolution in the first-tier tribunal immigration and asylum chamber, more than double the figure from the previous year.
Currently, there are sufficient lawyers to represent only about half of asylum claimants, resulting in numerous cases being postponed or individuals opting to represent themselves.
More than 54,000 people seeking asylum, or appealing against a refusal in a tribunal in England and Wales this year – 57% of the total – were unable to access a legal aid lawyer, figures show.
Last year, 37,450 asylum applicants were unable to obtain publicly funded representation. In 2020-21, the number was 6,245, or 17% of the total.
Separately, the government announced a £24m funding boost for criminal legal aid on 14 November which will provide additional funding for police station and youth court work.
The Ministry of Justice will also reimburse travel time for solicitors who work or commute to areas with fewer than two legal aid providers, as well as the Isle of Wight.
Jeremy Bloom, a solicitor at Duncan Lewis, said: “We welcome the commitment that the lord chancellor has shown to resolving the crisis in legal aid with her proposal to implement a long overdue increase to immigration and asylum, and housing and debt legal aid rates. With the increases proposed in response to the judicial review claim brought by Duncan Lewis, legal aid in these areas is put on a far more sustainable footing and those in need of representation will be far more likely to be able to get it when they need it most.”
The Law Society president, Richard Atkinson, said: “Legal aid should be a pillar of public services nationwide and unfair treatment in our justice system harms us all.
“It is encouraging to see that the government has increased hourly rates by at least 10%, and in a few instances by significantly more, recognising the importance of investing in civil legal aid to level the playing field for those seeking access to justice.”
Lawyers in nine other areas of law, such as mental health, education, community care and discrimination, face a longer wait for any fee uplift, according to Law Gazette. The MoJ said it would continue to consider the fees paid in other categories of civil legal aid, including as part of the second phase of the government’s spending review due next spring.
