Legal aid uplift for criminal barristers not enough to stop strike
Reading time: 1 minute
Criminal barristers are to go ahead with industrial action as the UK government’s proposed cash injection for legal aid would amount to no more than an extra £100 per month for each of them.
Jo Sidhu QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), said practitioners “have made it absolutely clear that without a substantial increase in criminal legal aid fees, the alarming exodus of prosecutors and defenders from criminal work will continue if not accelerate”.
The CBA said most of the £135m would go to specialist law firms and that of the remaining £35m, some £6m would go to solicitor advocates. The £29m would be further diminished, possibly to £20m, after overheads and taxes are taken into account.
The recent ballot of members mentioned a fee rise of 25 per cent, as opposed to the 15 per cent ministers have proposed, meaning barristers will continue with industrial action from April 11.
Share this article:
Subscribe to our newsletter to not miss articles like this one:
SUBSCRIBE
