Prison lawyers have accused the government of being ‘shortsighted’ over its decision not to increase their legal aid fees.

Publishing its final response to the Bellamy review on criminal legal aid, the Ministry of Justice said most consultation respondents supported an uplift in fees. However, it has decided not to increase fees ‘because we want to focus available funding on the initial stages of criminal cases to support early resolution’. The Bellamy review recommended a fee uplift.

The Association of Prison Lawyers said the government’s justification was short-sighted. ‘Effective prison law advice is essential to reduce the human and financial cost of unnecessary incarceration.’

The government’s response was published on the same day the Ministry of Justice announced that it had written to the National Police Chiefs’ Council to request the temporary use of up to 400 police cells to deal with an ‘acute and sudden’ increase in the prison population.

The association said: ‘As the Parole Board itself has pointed out, prison lawyers play a vital role in the parole system. A sustainable supply of prison law legal aid lawyers is essential if the reforms introduced by the government to protect victims are to work.’

Legal aid is currently available for advice and assistance, and advocacy, in relation to sentence, disciplinary and Parole Board cases. According to Legal Aid Agency figures, the number of prison law providers has fallen by 70% between 2012/13 and 2019/20.

The government acknowledged in its final response that restructuring the fee scheme could address the issue that providers are not currently rewarded for extra work on complex cases unless they reach the escape fee threshold.

‘We understand that most of this data is already submitted to the [Legal Aid Agency]. We will be sharing more information on this and engaging with the profession to determine whether the current LAA data we hold can be used to support the structural reform of the scheme,’ it said.