Criminal Legal Aid – The March 2026 Increases

As you know, Statutory Instrument 2025 No. 1251 gave us the increases in criminal legal aid fees for Lower crime work with effect from December 2025. Those increases will get a brief mention in the presentation and are also covered in Part 1 of this series, Criminal Legal Aid – The December 2025 Fee Increases.

They have now published Statutory Instrument 2026 No. 106 which gives us the increases for Crown Court legal aid with effect from this month – March 2026.

The presentation will concentrate heavily on the increases coming your way this month.

The Statutory Instrument is not an easy read and this presentation will cover the following points:

1. The increases in relation to criminal legal aid for Crown Court work where the fee is essentially based upon a page count because the matter has been sent to the Crown Court
2. The increases in relation to criminal legal aid for Crown Court work where the matter has been committed for sentence from the Magistrates’ Court to the Crown Court
3. The increases in relation to criminal legal aid for Crown Court work where the matter is the subject of an appeal from the Magistrates’ Court to the Crown Court – that may be an appeal against sentence or an appeal against conviction
4. The Statutory Instrument also deals with the increases for criminal legal aid fees when dealing with an appeal by way of case stated to the High Court
5. The Statutory Instrument also deals with the fees available for assigned counsel in the Adult Magistrates’ Court, Youth Court or High Court

Top 3 takeaways from the webinar:

1 – The new fees based upon ages of prosecution evidence (PPE)
2 – The new fees regarding committals for sentence
3 – The new fees regarding appeals

Who this is for:

This session will be of use to anyone involved in any capacity in the criminal justice system.

Level of expertise:

All Levels – this can be picked up throughout anyone’s professional career regardless of experience

CPD hours:

This webinar provides you with 1 hour of learning.

Attendees will receive a CPD certificate upon completion of this course.

Learning objectives:

The object of the exercise during this presentation is to familiarise you with the important points mentioned in the Statutory Instrument such that you are billing your Crown Court cases correctly and not underclaiming