- BY CJ McKinney
Revised legal aid rates for online immigration appeals from 7 October
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The government has published new legal aid rates for online immigration and asylum appeals following last month’s admission that the original system was brought in unlawfully. The highly contentious standard fees for appeals lodged under the “online procedure” have been scrapped and replaced with hourly rates.
The Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No. 2) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020 No. 1001) were laid on 16 September and come into force on 7 October. There are transitional arrangements for legal aid granted before that date.
The new hourly rates are as follows:
| Controlled Legal Representation – Immigration and Asylum Online Procedure hourly rates cases | ||
| Activity | London Rate | Non-London Rate |
| Preparation and Attendance | £55.08 per hour | £51.53 per hour |
| Routine Letters Out and Telephone Calls | £3.96 per hour | £3.69 per hour |
Legal aid for representing a client at a hearing will still be at flat rates:
| Immigration and Asylum Online Procedure Advocacy Services Standard Fees | |
| Activity | Activity Advocacy Services Standard Fee |
| Oral Case Management Review Hearing | £166 |
| Telephone Case Management Review Hearing | £90 |
| Substantive Hearing in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal | Asylum – £302 |
Immigration – £237 | |
| Additional Day Substantive Hearing | Asylum – £161 |
| Immigration – £161 | |
On the plus side, barristers will now be able to claim up to 80% of their fees in advance as a “payment on account”, up from 75% now. It should also be easier to trigger a payment on account, with further tweaks to “provide barristers with more flexibility in their arrangements for payments on account and speed up payments to them”, according to the explanatory memo.
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