Supplementary evidence from the Ministry
of Justice (AJ 61)
TRENDS IN
LEGAL AID
EXPENDITURE 2000-01 TO
2009-10
Overall expenditure
1.1 In the period from 2000/01 to 2009/10, expenditure
on legal aid rose by almost 3% in real terms. While the cost
of civil legal aid has gone down by 6% the cost of criminal legal
aid has risen by 9%.
| £m cash (at 2009-10 prices)
| 2000-01 | 2001-02
| 2002-03 | 2003-04
| 2004-05 | 2005-06
| 2006-07 | 2007-08
| 2008-09 | 2009-10
|
| Civil | 998 | 905
| 972 | 1,044 | 956
| 923 | 869 | 882
| 928 | 941 |
| Criminal | 1,101 | 1,211
| 1,310 | 1,370 | 1,348
| 1,330 | 1,258 | 1,232
| 1,207 | 1,205 |
| Total Legal aid | 2,099
| 2,117 | 2,282 |
2,414 | 2,304 | 2,253
| 2,128 | 2,114 |
2,135 | 2,146 |
1.2 As can be seen from the above table, expenditure peaked
around 2003/04, and having fallen back has been broadly flat in
the last four years.
1.3 In 2000-01, civil and family legal aid comprised 48% of
expenditure. In the intervening years the proportion of expenditure
on criminal legal aid increased significantly so that by 2007-08
it comprised 48% of spend, thereby reducing civil legal aid to
42%. However, in the last two years the balance has again shifted
so that it now consumes almost 44% of the legal aid budget.
CIVIL AND
FAMILY LEGAL
AID
2.1 Figure 1 below shows that in real terms expenditure on
civil representation has declined by around 10%, mainly as a result
of a reduction in scope (the Access to Justice Act 1999 removed
personal injury and other money claims). However, in the last
three years there has been an 8.3% increase, mainly from public
law children cases where volumes have increased significantly
in the wake of the Baby Peter case. Legal Help has risen by almost
19% in the last year where we have seen increased demand in areas
such as housing, debt, employment and welfare benefits driven
by the recession. Spending on immigration has been flat since
2006/07 as volumes continued to fall.
Figure 1
| £m cash (at 2009-10 prices) |
2000-01 | 2001-02 |
2002-03 | 2003-04 |
2004-05 | 2005-06 |
2006-07 | 2007-08 |
2008-09 | 2009-10 |
| Civil Rep | 706 | 587
| 577 | 597 | 554
| 608 | 589 | 610
| 661 | 639 |
| Legal Help | 182 | 170
| 194 | 219 | 208
| 202 | 193 | 182
| 179 | 213 |
| Immigration | 110 | 148
| 201 | 228 | 193
| 113 | 87 | 90
| 88 | 89 |
| Total Civil (CLS) | 998
| 905 | 972 |
1,044 | 956 | 923
| 869 | 882 |
928 | 941 |
2.2 The large increase seen in social welfare law categories
in recent years (Debt, Housing, Employment and Welfare Benefits)
have been driven by the recession, where the previous Government
was keen to ensure the provision of early advice. The increase
in family expenditure in the last three years was primarily due
to growth in both volumes and costs per case in public law children
cases (volumes up 33% since 2008-09 from 30k to 40k per annum,
as a result of the Baby Peter case); costs per case remain relatively
high (c £10k) and taken together these have exerted a pressure
of around £100m per annum. The decline in immigration spend,
despite an increase in volume, reflects a shift from more expensive
asylum cases to cheaper immigration and nationality cases. Although
volumes of Mental Health cases have risen sharply, expenditure
has declined substantially as a result of the introduction of
the new fees schemes in January 2008.
2.3 MoJ and LSC have no evidence of increasing complexity
being a cost driver on the civil and family side. For example,
the LSC care proceedings file review (December 2008) did not show
a strong link between factors said to be driving complexity in
care cases (such as parents under 25, multiple local authority
involvement, child born during proceedings) and case costs. More
generally, when most cases are covered by fixed fees, as they
are in the majority of civil and family work, it is numbers of
cases that drive expenditure.
CRIMINAL LEGAL
AID
3.1 Figure 2 shows that there has been, in real terms, a marked
shift from Crime Lower (down 6%) to Crime Higher (up 9%)
Figure 2
| £m cash (at 2009-10 prices) |
2000-01 | 2001-02 |
2002-03 | 2003-04 |
2004-05 | 2005-06 |
2006-07 | 2007-08 |
2008-09 | 2009-10 |
| Crime Higher | 532 | 585
| 680 | 750 | 771
| 773 | 690 | 723
| 712 | 734 |
| Crime Lower | 569 | 627
| 630 | 621 | 577
| 556 | 568 | 509
| 495 | 471 |
| Total Criminal (CDS) | 1,101
| 1,211 | 1,310 |
1,370 | 1,348 | 1,330
| 1,258 | 1,232 |
1,207 | 1,205 |
3.2 Expenditure on VHCCs peaked at £125 million in 2007-08,
but has now stabilised at c £98 million.
3.3 Since 2006, there have been some significant shifts in
the workloads of the Crown Court and magistrates' courts:
- the number of cases received for trial in the Crown Court
increased by over 26% (around 20,000 cases), to 98,000 cases.
The majority of the increase is accounted for by either way cases
committed for trial, which increased by 15,750, or 33%. The increase
in the volume of indictable only cases was 4,400, or 14%; in contrast,
the number of defendants proceeded against in the magistrates'
courts fell by 13% between 2007 and 2009; and
- the proportion of Crown Court cases that resulted in a plea
of guilty also rose by 35% between 2006 and 2009. The average
overall expenditure on guilty pleas and cracked trials within
the Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS) has increased by 103%
and 67% respectively since 2007, taking into account changes in
the volume of cases.
3.4 As discussed in the Consultation Paper on Legal Aid Reform:
- While there are likely to be a number of factors behind these
trends, it is notable that almost 60% (around 39,000) of defendants
in either way cases sentenced in the Crown Court received a sentence
on conviction that a magistrates' court could have imposed. This
suggests that although more cases are being committed to the Crown
Court, it is not necessarily more serious work, and most could
appropriately have been dealt with in the magistrates' courts.
- In 2008-09, 63,000 either way cases were committed for trial
in the Crown Court. Of those cases, nearly three quarters (73%)
entered a guilty plea at an average total cost of both litigation
and advocacy of over £1,700 (for guilty pleas) or just over
£3,200 (for cracked trials). In comparison, MoJ has estimated
that the average fees available for all either way cracked trials
and guilty pleas in the magistrates' court is around £295
(excluding VAT and disbursements). There has therefore been a
significant cost to the legal aid fund in cases which might more
efficiently have been handled in the magistrates' courts.
3.5 It has been argued that the complexity of criminal cases
has increased in recent years for several reasons. For example,
it has been suggested that changes to criminal justice legislation
(eg on hearsay and bad character) have increased the time that
cases take to pass through the court system and created additional
avenues of appeal. In addition, changes in digital technology
have seen the amount of evidence in criminal cases increase. For
example, between 2004-05 and 2010-11 the average page count in
Crown Court trials increased by 65%.
KEY POLICY
CHANGES
4.1 A number of initiatives aimed at reducing costs have been
implemented in recent years. These include:
- The introduction and gradual extension of Crown Court Advocates'
Graduated Fees, first introduced in 2001, extended to cracks and
guilty please in 2005 and revised in 2007.
- Putting all VHCCs under individual case contracts from 2004-05.
- Re-introduction of means testing in magistrates' courts 2006-07.
- Introduction of civil and family fixed fees and revised Magistrates'
Court standard fees in 2007.
- Introduction
of Crown Court Litigators' Fees and new Police Station Duty Solicitor
Fees in 2008.
- Re-introduction of Crown Court Means Testing
April to June 2010.
- Extension of Advocates Graduated Fees Scheme
to encompass cases of up to 60 days duration July 2010.
February 2011
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