The Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association have criticised ministers for failing to deliver an annual criminal legal aid increase, five months after the government pledged the funding. The government said last December that publicly funded criminal advocates would receive up to £34m a year, including VAT, in additional criminal legal aid fees. It also promised match-funded pupillages to train new criminal barristers.

But the Bar Council said there had been ‘no progress,  limited information, and no decisions’ on the commitment, despite continuing concern over barrister shortages and Crown Court delays. The intervention comes as ministers continue with wider court reforms, including the Courts and Tribunals Bill, which would remove the defendant’s right to elect jury trial in triable either-way cases likely to receive a sentence of three years or less. 

‘The government’s determination to restructure our courts and dismantle our long-standing framework of jury trials should not stand in the way of this vital investment, for without it an already crumbling system will fail’,  Criminal Bar Association Chair Riel Karmy-Jones KC stated.

Ministers have argued that court modernisation is needed to address the Crown Court backlog. In December, the Ministry of Justice said almost 80,000 cases were waiting to be heard in the Crown Court and warned that the figure was expected to reach 100,000 without urgent action.

The Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association argue that the government is prioritising structural reform while delaying a measure it has already accepted as needed: investment in the criminal barristers who prosecute and defend cases.

According to the Bar Council, the number of barristers earning most of their income from criminal legal aid fell by 11% between 2017/18 and 2020/21, before recovering after the 2022 legal aid investment. The number of silks mainly doing criminal legal aid work has fallen by nearly 25% since 2017/18.

‘If the government doesn’t invest in the lawyers who defend and prosecute cases, we will see them leaving the criminal Bar again which will lead to more delays in the system’, Bar Council Chair Kirsty Brimelow KC stated. ‘Delays occur in court when cases are adjourned because of lack of a barrister to prosecute or defend’.