The Criminal Defence Service (Funding) (Amendment No. 3) Order 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order makes amendments to the Criminal Defence Service (Funding) Order 2001 which made provision for the funding and remuneration of the Criminal Defence Service under Part 1 of the Access to Justice Act 1999. The effects of the amendments are as follows:

• To set out the rate of fees for work carried out in the magistrates' court where a case is sent for trial to the Crown Court under section 51 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (c. 37).

• To prohibit interim payments in respect of work for which a graduated fee is payable and to increase the qualifying period for the payment of interim payments to advocates.

• To set out the power of judges of the Crown Court to certify that attendance by a solicitor on an advocate is required.

• To allow claims by advocates for graduated fees to be made before the conclusion of the proceedings where a confiscation hearing is to be held more than 28 days after the conclusion of the trial or after the entering of a guilty plea.

• To make separate provision for the payment of hourly fees for attendance by trial advocates at conferences with the assisted person. Conferences with an assisted person not held at court are restricted in number and capped in length.

• To extend the payment provisions in Schedule 4, for advocacy on behalf of assisted persons in the Crown Court, to trials lasting up to 30 days and to all indictable offences, regardless of the length of the prosecution evidence or the number of witnesses.

• To provide for the payment of an adjusted graduated fee to advocates where, following a trial, an order was made for a new trial and the same trial advocate appeared for an assisted person at both trials.

• To introduce a new graduated fee formula for trials lasting 11-25 days and to set out the adjusted graduated fee payable for hearings lasting not less than 25 and not more than 30 days, where it was accepted by the court at the pleas and directions hearing that the trial would not exceed 25 days.

• To revise, in Schedule 4, the Table of Fees and Uplifts in Part 2, the Table following paragraph 22 and the Table of Offences at the end of Part 5.

• To establish the circumstances in which attendance by trial advocates at hearings relating to the admissibility of evidence will be included in the length of the main hearing for the purpose of calculating remuneration and the circumstances in which a fixed fee will be payable in respect of such hearings.

• To introduce a fixed fee for attendance by the trial advocate at court where the trial did not proceed because of an application for postponement.

• To allow the payment of a graduated fee calculated in accordance with Part 2 or Part 3 of Schedule 4, as appropriate, for attendance by advocates at hearings held to determine the question of whether the assisted person is unfit to plead or unfit to be tried.

• To include attendance by the trial advocate at court solely for the purpose of cross-examining a vulnerable witness within the graduated fee provisions of Schedule 4.

• To introduce payment, on an hourly fee basis, for the provision by a trial advocate of written or oral advice.

• To provide for the payment of a fixed fee and special preparation fee for appearance by a trial advocate at a sentencing hearing solely to mitigate the assisted person’s sentence.

This Order makes other minor and consequential amendments.