Authors:Legal Action Group
Created:2022-10-14
Last updated:2023-09-18
.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have voted to suspend their industrial action, following talks with the government that resulted in what the
Ministry of Justice described as a ‘15 per cent fee increase for criminal barristers [that] will now apply to the vast majority of cases currently in the Crown Court’ (this applies to all backlog cases where the main hearing takes place after 31 October 2022). The package also includes additional payments for written work and ‘bolt-on’ payments for s28 hearings, as well as the establishment of a Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board (CLAAB). However, the CBA had sought a 25 per cent fee increase, and the CLAAB will not have direct powers to raise fees as a pay review body would. Perhaps reflecting these compromises, the results, announced on 10 October 2022, were not as conclusive as previous ballots on the action: 57 per cent voted to accept the government’s offer and 43 per cent rejected it. In a
joint letter to members, the CBA’s chair, Kirsty Brimelow KC, vice-chair, Tana Adkin KC, treasurer, Laurie-Anne Power KC, and secretary, Mark Watson, seemed to accept that the result would be unpopular with some members, but also noted that further action may be on the cards if the government fails to keep its promises:
As a democratic organisation, we take our mandate from you. Whatever the final result, there will always be disappointment and even bitterness. The underlying causes that compelled us to commence action, as a unified group, have not gone away … The offer from the government is an overdue start. Its acceptance by barristers is on the basis that it is implemented. Otherwise, the CBA will ballot again to lift the suspension of action.
Meanwhile,
I Stephanie Boyce, the outgoing president of The Law Society, remarked that the situation for solicitors is far from resolved:
The justice minister may think he has got one problem off his table but there are bigger problems coming his way as this dispute continues. This is another example of a government U-turn making a bad situation worse ... If this money can be found to bring a strike to an end, surely it can be found to give a fair deal to solicitors, who have kept the wheels of justice turning despite 25 years without a pay rise. If the gap isn’t bridged by the time the government publishes their full response to the independent review in November, we have made it clear we will advise our members that there is no viable future in criminal legal aid work.