The Criminal Defence Service (Funding) (Amendment) Order 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends the Criminal Defence Service (Funding) Order 2001 (“the 2001 Order”).

The principal amendments are as follows:

(a) An appeal to the High Court against a costs judge’s decision will be governed by Part 52 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 instead of Part 8 of those rules (article 4).

(b) The power to grant an uplift of solicitors' fees is restricted to certain types of work in respect of certain offences and to a maximum of 100 per cent in all cases (article 5).

(c) Schedule 4 to the 2001 Order which concerns fees for advocacy in the Crown Court is amended so that it covers all guilty pleas and cracked trials (article 8).

(d) New scales of graduated fees for trials in the Crown Court are substituted in the table in paragraph 8 in Part 2 of Schedule 4 (article 9 and Part 1 of the Schedule).

(e) A new payment scheme for guilty pleas and cracked trials is introduced by the substitution of new scales in the table in paragraph 10 in Part 3 of Schedule 4 (article 11 and Part 2 of the Schedule).

(f) The proportions of the fees payable to advocates other than Queen’s Counsel where two trial advocates are instructed to represent the same person are altered (article 17).

(g) The rates of pay in very high cost cases for preparation, advocacy and preliminary hearings are altered by the substitution of new tables in Schedule 5 to the 2001 Order (article 22).

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the costs of business.