Legal Aid - A Revised Framework for the Assessment of Legal Aid Costs Subject to Taxation

Overview

The Department of Justice is seeking your views on proposals to establish a revised framework for the assessment of legal aid costs subject to taxation by setting remuneration rates for the legal profession working on those cases, which the Taxing Master will then apply when assessing costs.  Taxation Reform is aimed at enhancing transparency, accountability and budgetary control for what amounts to approximately £30m of legal aid expenditure each year.

The proposals set out in this consultation paper cover:

• Legal aid rates and fees for solicitors and barristers providing representation for Civil Legal Services and Criminal Defence Servies in the High Court and Court of Appeal;
• Documenting work and the submission of bills; and
• Criteria for the enhancement of legal aid rates.

The consultation will run for a period of eight weeks from Monday 26 October to Monday 21 December 2026.  All responses should be submitted by 5pm on Monday 21 December 2026.

The consultation documents can be accessed below:

Legal Aid - A Revised Framework for the Assessment of Legal Aid Costs Subject to Taxation

Annex 1 Response Template - see Consultation paper

Annex 2 Privacy Notice - see Consultation paper

Annex 3 Evidence and Benchmarking

Annex 4 Pre-consultation Engagement Paper

As the Department is obliged to consult for a period of 12 weeks on the impact assessments the Department is consulting separately on the policy and the impact assessments. The Impact Assessments Consultation can be found at the link below:-  

Impact Assessments - A Revised Framework for the Assessment of Legal Aid Costs Subject to Taxation - NI Direct - Citizen Space

Why your views matter

This consultation seeks views to inform final policy design.

This consultation is open to all individuals, businesses, organisations and representative bodies.

It is recognised that people may wish to submit a response using the response template at Annex 1 of the consultation document or to provide a long form response to this consultation as opposed to utilising Citizen Space format. This is an acceptable format for response and can be submitted to the e-mail address provided on this page.