Criminal defence barristers have voted to accept an improved deal on legal aid fees from the UK government worth millions of pounds, which will end a month-long strike that has disrupted thousands of trials.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association, which represents 2,600 barristers, have taken days of strike action since late June over rates paid for legal aid work. They began an all-out strike on September 5.
Their action has caused delays in the courts as the government battles to reduce a backlog of cases in the crown court that have risen from 40,000 in March 2020 to 59,992 in July.
The government revised the offer in late September and 56 per cent of barristers who voted in the Criminal Bar Association ballot said on Monday they would accept it. Some 2,605 votes were cast.
Criminal barristers will suspend their action from 5pm on Monday and return to work.
Barristers, who are self employed and who can earn as little as £12,200 in their first three years of work, had pushed for a 25 per cent rise in legal aid fees for representing defendants.
The government had initially promised to increase rates by 15 per cent but only for new cases taken on from late September, rather than upcoming trials that barristers had already been booked to do.
Brandon Lewis, the justice secretary, unveiled a revised deal that will mean a £54mn government investment in the criminal bar and solicitors.
The government has now agreed to apply the 15 per cent rise in fees for most of the existing cases in the crown court system, rather than just for new cases.
It will inject an additional £3mn of funding available to barristers for work done in preparing their cases and a further £5mn uplift for fees paid for youth court work.
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