Criminal barristers play a crucial role in upholding the rule of law and are a fundamental part of our criminal justice system. Our plans to increase legal aid fees will put criminal legal aid on a sustainable footing and ensure there is a sustainable supply of practitioners. We have made proposals for wholesale reform of legal aid – including £115 million more on fees, £20 million for longer term reform and increased sitting days so that the Crown Court can get through more trials. This, combined, would take expected criminal legal aid spend to £1.2 billion per year.

On 20 July, the Government laid a statutory instrument to implement a 15% uplift to most fee schemes. This statutory instrument will come into force for new representation orders that begin from 30 September 2022 onwards. Criminal legal aid practitioners will start to receive the pay increase from October 2022 onwards for their work on these cases.

Since the consultation closed, my officials have been working hard to analyse all responses to deliver our full response in the Autumn and progress reform at pace. Our full response to the consultation will include our proposals to:

• Reform fee schemes so they properly reflect the way legal professionals work today.

• Invest in a diverse and sustainable profession.

• Create an Advisory Board (CLAIR explicitly did not recommend a pay review body as suggested in the question).

Written work is one of a number of activities constituting an advocate’s typical preparation for a Crown Court trial. Most preparation is currently considered to be remunerated by the Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme fixed basic (“brief”) fee; the department does not currently collect the data necessary to isolate how many hours advocates normally commit to written work (or other preparatory activities). Officials are currently determining the optimal approach for exploring the nature of modern advocacy and establishing how best to reform the AGFS as a whole. We will outline next steps in the full response to consultation. We will also respond to the question asked about potential training grants for criminal legal aid chambers to help with recruitment and retention issues.

I am committed to work with the legal professions – both barristers and solicitors – to ensure that criminal advocacy remains an attractive profession which is open to all. This must be a long term, system-wide process, far beyond legal aid. This is an important task for the Government, but this is not something we can deliver alone.

My predecessor, James Cartlidge MP, met with representatives from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) in May and I met with them in July. These meetings gave us the chance to discuss the positive changes proposed by the CLAIR consultation and the benefits of engaging with government constructively to ensure the sustainability of the sector. I have since offered to meet again with the CBA, which they are yet to respond to. Senior officials continue to meet with the CBA to discuss issues of mutual concern on a weekly basis.

My predecessor, James Cartlidge MP, met representatives from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) in May and I met them in July. These meetings gave us the chance to discuss the positive changes proposed by CLAIR and the benefits of engaging with government constructively to ensure the sustainability of the sector. Senior officials continue to meet the chair of the CBA on a regular basis to discuss issues of mutual concern.

On 30 June, the Government announced via a Written Ministerial Statement that it would introduce secondary legislation to increase criminal legal aid fees. On 20 July, the Government laid a statutory instrument to implement a 15% uplift to most fee schemes. This statutory instrument will come into force for new representation orders that begin from 30 September 2022 onwards. Criminal legal aid practitioners will start to receive the pay increase from October 2022 onwards for their work on these cases.

Whilst we recognise the importance of remuneration in delivering long term sustainability of the market, Sir Christopher’s review was not just about providers’ remuneration, but also about the effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System for all who use it. That is why alongside greater investment in criminal legal aid fees, we have consulted on a range of non-financial measures to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system.

Sir Christopher Bellamy undertook a financial assessment and recommended that funding for criminal legal aid should be increased overall for both solicitors and barristers as soon as possible to an annual level, in a steady state, of at least 15% above present levels. On 15 March, we published our interim response to Sir Christopher Bellamy’s report together with a consultation on related policy proposals. This was followed by a 12-week consultation period, and then a further 12 weeks to deliver requisite operational and legal changes. The next phase will involve consideration of the options for longer term reform we set out in the consultation, with a full response being published in the autumn. Notwithstanding the time constraints, we have worked as quickly as possible to deliver the funding increase, with the new fees due to come into force on 30 September. There is provision for interim and hardship payments to be made to criminal barristers and solicitors in certain circumstances, which are set out in Regulations and administered by the Legal Aid Agency.

A key part the Attorney General’s role as head of the profession is meeting regularly with the leaders of the Professional bodies to discuss matters of relevance within the criminal justice system including the Chair of the Bar Council, the Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, the President of the Law Society and the Bar Circuit Leaders. These valuable and productive meetings enable the Law Officers to understand the issues affecting front-line practitioners, so that they are able to articulate their concerns to ministerial colleagues to ensure that in the development of government policy, the views of the profession are reflected and understood.

Agendas for these meetings are prepared so as to allow flexibility, in order to allow for discussion of topical issues. Such issues include the views of practitioners on the Crown Court backlog, government initiatives such as the roll out of s.28 and how we are working together to improve the system performance in relation to rape cases.

The regular monthly meetings of the Bar Council are attended either by the Attorney or the Solicitor General, so as to allow the Law Officers a full understanding of the issues that are affecting front-line practitioners.

The Secretary of State for Justice has met regularly with the legal profession to discuss the Transforming Legal Aid proposals. This includes meetings with the Law Society, Bar Council, Circuit Leaders and roundtable meetings with Law Society members.

The Secretary of State has not met with Michael Turner QC. However, Lord McNally, lead Minister for legal aid at the MOJ met with Mr Turner on 30 May 2013.

The Department publishes quarterly meetings between Ministers and all external organisations. Quarters from January 2013 will be published in due course. This can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/corporate-reports

Between 9 April and 4 June 2013 the Government consulted on a number of proposals to reform legal aid via the ‘Transforming Legal Aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system’ consultation. This included a proposed model of competitive tendering for criminal legal aid services. We have been clear we must continue to bear down on the cost of legal aid, including the £1 billion of taxpayers' money spent on criminal legal aid a year, to ensure we are getting the best deal for the taxpayer.

During the consultation the ministerial team and officials met with many stakeholders, and I refer the hon. Gentleman to the parliamentary question (158068) asked by the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), for a full breakdown of those meetings. It states that Lord McNally met with the Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association on 30 May 2013 for 45 minutes, along with a senior civil servant and a representative from the Legal Aid Agency (LAA).

This consultation has now closed and my officials and I will be considering the responses, including the response received from the Criminal Bar Association, with a view to publishing the Government response in the autumn.