More than 6 months on from the start of the industrial action, and 6 weeks on from the start of the strikes, 57% (or 2,605 members) of the Criminal Bar Association voted to accept the 15% pay rise offer from the government. The immediate minimum wage increase recommendation from the criminal legal aid review was published in December of last year, but 10% lower than the 25% increase the Association was originally asking for. The government also announced that the offer would also include a £5 million uplift per year for fees in youth courts as well as further investment of £54 million in the criminal bar and solicitors.
This strike follows decades of austerity where the system of legal aid, which is the main contributor to how barristers are paid, has been repeatedly stripped away causing a loss of income in real terms of 28%% since 2006, while current inflation is now 9.9%. This agreement reached, however, will only be applicable to new cases from the end of September, meaning that the crown courts backlog of around 60,000 cases will not be included.
The Association had wanted the increase to apply to all cases, arguing that in order to effectively address the huge backlog of cases, extra cash had to be injected immediately. However it accepted the governments offer and terms. Statistics from HM Courts and Tribunals due this week are expected to indicate a lack of progress of reducing the backlogs both from Strikes, Covid-19 and lack of funding, which mean some trials are taking over two years to be heard.
The chair of the Association stated that the criminal justice system will remain chronically underfunded, being the duty of the government to properly fund it. If the government fails to implement the deal and instigate further long-term reform then the Association will ballot again for industrial action. She maintains, however, that the situation should never have gotten to the current state of barristers having to take industrial action to demand extra funding into criminal legal aid.