Fees
Section 52: Fees
191.This section should be read together with section 53, which makes supplementary provision about fees. Section 52(1) provides for the Lord Chancellor to have a power, by order (which by virtue of section 144 is to be exercisable by statutory instrument subject to negative resolution procedure) to prescribe the fees payable in respect of any matter dealt with by the Supreme Court. By virtue of subsection (2), this includes a power to exempt, remit or reduce fees, and to specify the criteria by which exemptions, reductions and remissions are to operate. The exercise of the power to prescribe fees is, by virtue of subsection (3), subject to a duty on the Lord Chancellor to have regard to the principle that access to the courts should not be denied.
192.By virtue of subsections (4)-(6), the exercise of the power is also subject to a requirement of prior consultation with the President and Deputy President of the new Supreme Court and the senior judiciary in each of the three jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, and the principal legal professional bodies in those jurisdictions.
Section 53: Fees: Supplementary
193.This section supplements section 52. Subsection (1) provides that Supreme Court fees are to be recoverable as a civil debt (mirroring the general position in relation to court fees).
194.Subsection (2) places the Lord Chancellor under a duty to take such steps as are reasonably practicable to bring information about fees to the attention of those who are likely to have to pay them.
195.Subsection (3) defines “Supreme Court fees” (as fees prescribed in an order under section 52).