Legal aid gets a boost… but not enough
On 2 July 2025, the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”) announced the conclusion of the Civil legal aid: Towards a sustainable future consultation. The consultation confirms that increases to legal aid rates for Immigration and Housing work will be made as soon as practicably possible.
Young Legal Aid Lawyers (“YLAL”) welcomes the decision to increase legal aid rates; the first raise to legal aid rates since 1996. However, it is a negative mark against successive governments that the crisis in legal aid was allowed to deteriorate and bed in over nearly 3 decades, with no end in sight.
We remain concerned that this increase is not sufficient to deliver an immediate and sustainable expansion of capacity within the sector, nor to attract new or returning providers to undertake this work. As we made clear in our response to the consultation, the approximate 30% increase in fees continues to represent a real-terms cut. The Law Society has stated a 95% increase is required to restore rates to the levels they were at in 1996; the newly announced rates fall significantly short of this bar.
YLAL also expresses serious concern at the MoJ’s admission that the proposed increases are expected to result in only 60 to 75% of legal aid firms operating at a profit. This suggests an acceptance that up to 40% of firms may continue to operate at a loss, which fundamentally undermines the sustainability of the profession. For young practitioners entering the profession, it reflects the grim reality that they will face limited support, overstretched supervisors, little prospect of progression and training investment in their workplaces. MoJ suggests that a range of factors influence whether a firm is profitable, but this distracts from the core issue: in publicly funded legal work, profitability is primarily determined by the rates set by the government.
This low, minimal, or even negative profitability has a direct impact on pay for junior practitioners. Persistently low rates, particularly for junior practitioners, make it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain lawyers in legal aid, placing the future of the sector at risk. As highlighted in the Frontier Economics report commissioned by the Law Society, legal aid providers report high levels of turnover among paralegals and trainees, many of whom leave shortly after qualification in search of better pay and working conditions. Junior staff are often expected to manage complex, emotionally challenging cases on unsustainable salaries. Many enter the profession to help people facing housing insecurity, domestic abuse, or poverty, but are then forced to choose between doing that work or ensuring that they themselves are able to pay their bills. The government must make it possible for young practitioners to build a sustainable career in it. Unless legal aid rates reflect the realities of the work, the profession will continue to lose the very people it needs to survive.
The timeline of implementation of the increased rates is currently unknown. We encourage the MoJ to seek to ensure these increases are implemented immediately. Key to any success that the increase of funding provides, will be ensuring that providers and practitioners see the benefits of this raise as soon as possible; it will be insufficient for fees to be increased for work that can only be billed in 12 – 24 months time. We urge the MoJ to ensure the rates are applied to all matters (both new and ongoing) immediately. YLAL also remains concerned about the negative impact the cyber security breach will have in delaying providers from accessing the increased rates.
YLAL notes that the MoJ has not committed to increasing legal fees in other vital areas of civil legal aid, such as family, mental health, community care, education or discrimination. A large proportion of our membership work in numerous practice areas, oftentimes with overlap. And as demonstrated by the Law Society’s legal aid desert maps, the legal aid crisis is not isolated solely to Immigration and Housing. YLAL urges the MoJ to commit to an urgent and comprehensive review of civil legal aid rates across all areas of practice in order to ensure fair access to justice for all and to safeguard the sustainability of every area of the legal aid sector.
YLAL also expresses disappointment at the lack of a commitment from the Ministry of Justice to regularly review and increase legal aid rates in line with inflation. We remain concerned that this rise will be a one-off, with the sector being left neglected once more for decades. We note that the analysis that led to the increases being proposed appears already out of date: events which post-dated the review of civil legal aid, such as the rise in employee national insurance contributions, and the on-going impact of the LAA cyber-security attack have placed further financial pressures on a system that was already at breaking point.
A commitment to regular reviews and rises, tied to inflation, would have gone some way to restoring faith in the Ministry and confidence in the sector. This is essential if junior lawyers are to have any confidence that a long-term future in legal aid is possible. Sustained and predictable investment is essential not only to retain junior practitioners but also to improve social mobility within the profession by ensuring that those from less privileged backgrounds are able to pursue and remain in publicly funded legal work.
We acknowledge the Ministry of Justice’s commitment, in its consultation response, to monitor the impact of the fee increases on the number of providers and matter starts. However, this must go beyond passive monitoring; the Ministry must be prepared to act on the evidence and take a flexible, responsive approach to ensure the system adapts to changing needs. YLAL will continue to engage with and advocate to the Ministry to regularly review all legal aid rates. Long-term sustainability of legal aid depends on attracting and retaining junior practitioners, and a commitment to regular, responsive funding adjustments will be essential to achieving this.
As YLAL has always advocated, the importance of legal aid cannot be understated. It is crucial to any functioning justice system, allowing proper representation and advice irrelevant of a person’s means. YLAL views the increase in funding as a long overdue first step in addressing the deep damage done to access to justice after decades of neglect; but it is simply that, a first step.
Young and aspiring practitioners play a crucial role in ensuring sustainability in the future of legal aid, but that future depends on whether we are supported to stay in the sector. Without investing in better conditions for junior lawyers, there will simply be no next generation to carry this work forward.