16 V2 Tuesday March 15 2022 | the times
News
Criminal legal aid funding is being
given a £135 million-a-year boost after
barristers threatened to strike over pay
and bring the crown courts to a halt.
The move came in response to an
independent report that said criminal
law barristers are underpaid.
The report by the retired judge Sir
Christopher Bellamy QC recommended
that legal aid fees needed to be increased
by at least 15 per cent.
The Ministry of Justice said that, in
line with Bellamy’s recommendations,
legal representation would be made
free for all under-18s for the first time
and for parents who challenge doctors
over the withdrawal of their children’s
life support.
Legal aid would also be granted to
families at inquests where there had
been a potential breach of human rights.
The ministry said that up to an
extra £135 million would be spent on
the sector every year to match the
recommendation made by Bellamy.
The funding is in addition to another
£200 million annually that has been
allocated to increase the number of
crown court sitting days and the
Nightingale courts, which were opened
in various buildings during the corona-
virus lockdowns.
Dominic Raab, the justice secretary,
said: “We owe our whole legal profes-
Strike threat by barristers
brings extra legal aid cash
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor sion — solicitors, barristers, court staff
and judiciary — a debt of gratitude for
keeping the wheels of justice turning
over the last two years.
“That’s why we are accepting Sir
Christopher Bellamy’s recommendation
... to ensure legal representation is there
for those who most need it as we build
back a stronger and fairer society after
the pandemic.”
Members of the Criminal Bar Asso-
ciation overwhelmingly voted to strike
next month if fees were not increased.
The move would cause chaos in the
courts, which are struggling with a
backlog of nearly 60,000 cases, partly
as a result of coronavirus lockdowns.
The association said the 94 per cent
vote in favour of the strike demonstrated
that barristers “have already waited too
long” for a boost in fees. It added that
about 1,800 of slightly more than 1,
of its members who voted had backed
the strike. The turnout was about 80 per
cent of those eligible to vote.
Responding to the increase in
funding, Jo Sidhu QC, the chairman ofthe association, said that “without a
substantial increase in criminal legal
aid fees, the alarming exodus of prose-
cutors and defenders from criminal
work will continue, if not accelerate”.
Figures show that over the past five
years 46 per cent of Queen’s Counsel
and 22 per cent of junior barristers have
given up criminal work.
Sidhu said that the Bar had “already
lost too many of our colleagues, who
can no longer afford to maintain their
commitment to criminal work and who
have left our ranks out of desperation
and despair”. He added: “Every day we
are losing more.”
It is estimated that the number of
criminal law specialist barristers has
fallen over the past five years from
more than 4,000 to 2,400.
This is the third time that protests by
barristers have wrung concessions
from ministers. In 2014 they held the
first strike by the legal profession in
living memory and then threatened a
repeat action three years later.
Justice ministers said that they had
also accepted several other recommen-
dations from the Bellamy report. They
will raise the income and capital
thresholds for legal aid, which they said
would give more than two million extra
people in England and Wales access to
civil legal aid and 3.5 million more access
to criminal legal aid at magistrates’
courts.A
council has
warned
residents
against
fixing
potholes themselves
after Sir Rod Stewart
carried out DIY
repairs on the road
near his home because
his Ferrari can’t drive
through (Kieran Gair
writes).
Stewart, 77, said that
he and “the boys” had
no option but to pick
up their shovels at the
weekend to fix
potholes on a countrylane in Harlow, Essex.
Video shared on social
media showed the
singer, dressed in a
tracksuit and hi-vis
jacket, claiming that
he was “repairing the
street near where I
live because no one
can be bothered to do
it”.
He said: “People are
bashing their cars up.
The other day there
was an ambulance
with a burst tyre. My
Ferrari can’t get
through here at all. So
me and the boysTonight’s the night
... but first I’ve got
Dominic Raab: We to fix these potholes
owe our legal
profession a debt
of gratitude