Monday Message 27.05.25
The Cyber Attack:
The Ministry of Justice has been obliged to take the Legal Aid Agency online portal down due to a cyber-attack on the LAA’s digital services. The LAA became aware of this on the 23rd April 2025. On the 16th May 2025 the MOJ and LAA became aware that the attack was far more extensive than was originally understood.
The portal will remain offline until a replacement service is in place. All members of the public who have applied for legal aid since 2010 are urged to be alert for any suspicious activity, such as unknown emails or telephone calls and to update their passwords.
It is plain to us that the MOJ and the LAA are working around the clock to try to fix the problems caused by the cyber-attack. We know this because of the times and days that the MOJ and LAA have responded to our emails over the Bank Holiday weekend. We appreciate their efforts in this difficult time and offer our support and appreciation for their hard work.
The consequences of this breach may place firms of solicitors and some Chambers at real risk of financial instability.
The MOJ has set up a dedicated space to provide the latest updates. Their Customer Services Team can be reached by telephone between 09:00 and 17:00 hours Monday-Friday.
Whilst the portal is unavailable, criminal solicitors cannot have applications for legal aid date-stamped. When the portal becomes available again, solicitors will complete the application form as normal but must add the date that they would have submitted the legal aid application into the further information section.
We are told that if the date when the application would have been submitted is added to the further information section, the LAA case workers will backdate representation orders, including indictable only offences, to the date on the form which explains when the application would have been made. Once Crime Apply becomes available, they will revert to the existing arrangements. We are assured that applications which pass the relevant thresholds for the grant of legal aid will be backdated in this way, even if the case has been completed before the order can be formally granted.
Applications for prior authority for obtaining expert or medical reports required in cases cannot be submitted on the portal and will have to be sent by email.
Of course, not all applications for legal aid are granted. We will be working with the Law Society and the Judiciary to try to ensure that there is a protocol for new cases coming into the courts where there is no representation order by the time of the hearing or trial.
The separate portal through which Chambers submit claims for payment remains open. Currently, the hope is that claims will be processed via the online scheme within a sufficiently short period of time so that contingency arrangements for interim payments may not be necessary. The payment run of 27th May 2025 will be a day late.
If you are still waiting to know whether funding has been granted for Junior or Leading Counsel in a trial which is listed within the next month it is possible to call the helpline on 0300 200 200 for an answer. Please limit calls to the urgent cases to enable the LAA to be able to respond.
We will continue to update you as soon as we receive information from the MOJ and LAA. If there are any urgent or pressing matters that we can assist you with, please contact Aaron Dolan.
The Independent Sentencing Review:
The role of this review was to try, at speed, to abate the current mounting crisis of a national shortage of prison spaces in this time of emergency. We remind all those dealing with the Criminal Justice System that people only receive sentences if people are represented, pleas are entered or trials are heard and cases are concluded. The courts that deal with their cases must have sufficient criminal barristers and solicitors there to keep the system going. The retention and recruitment of the criminal Bar is also a national emergency.
It takes courage to step away from the clamour for longer and longer sentences for offenders and to face the reality of the situation in the Criminal Justice System. In the year ending September 2024, 1.51 million people were sentenced for criminal offences, an increase of 4% from the previous year.
As we consider this review, it is worth remembering, that amongst the political rhetoric of the opposition parties is a complete absence of any acknowledgment of their significant role in fundamentally mismanaging the criminal justice system over decades so that it is rightly described as broken. The previous Labour Government also played a part. There is no choice but to make change because of the long-term neglect of the system and we appreciate the efforts of the government in commissioning the Independent Sentencing Review in producing a report which follows constructive meetings with stakeholders. Whilst we may disagree on aspects of the recommendations, we do so with mutual respect.
The ISR has made suggestions as to the way forward so as to try to ensure that crime rates continue to fall, and that people feel safe. The narrative of the review is that prison should be seen as a last resort for those that do not pose a serious immediate threat of physical or sexual violence to the community. The report can be read here.
Short sentences:
One area where we support and endorse the ISR is for the significant reduction of short custodial sentences. In a system where the total prison population has grown by 40,000 people since 1993, it is a matter of regret that there has been no joined up thinking. Court sitting days were cut. The remand population increased to 20% of the prison population. Insufficient prison spaces were built to house new prisoners. This has meant that there are no real resources or facilities to rehabilitate prisoners. Failing to rehabilitate prisoners has a significant financial and social cost to us all when they reoffend.
In the year ending September 2024. 44,800 people were sentenced to imprisonment for periods of less than twelve months. That represents 58% of all prison sentences in that year. These short sentences do not work. The reoffending rate was 59%. They create significant additional burdens on prisons and their staff, and are very expensive. Women are particularly susceptible to short sentences of imprisonment. The recommendation of the ISR is that short custodial sentences are reserved for exceptional cases where the public require immediate protection, or all other options have failed. This approach might save 2,000 prison spaces a year at an average cost of £58,000 per space.
Other suggested changes which the CBA supports include increasing and broadening the use of community orders, conditions that can be attached to them and eradicating the use of rehabilitation activity requirements and returning to probation orders with individual sessions. The ISR recommends increasing the period by which sentences of up to two years imprisonment can be suspended from two to three years. The CBA had recommended increasing the maximum sentence which could be suspended from two years to three years imprisonment but that is not proposed by the ISR as yet. It is suggested by the Review that increasing the period of suspended sentences might save 1,300 prison spaces.
There are a very few lines within the report which consider the increase of medical interventions for offenders with drug and alcohol addictions and a consideration about increasing the current pilot scheme of medical interventions for sex offenders with significant research being undertaken. It is a great pity that media focus for the report has been on the Lord Chancellor’s contention that she will consider mandatory chemical castration which is not recommended or suggested by the expert authors of the report. We need to educate our community as to the benefits of rehabilitation of offenders so as to prevent further victims of repeat offenders rather than headline-grabbing rhetoric of being “tough on crime” again. The lesson must be learnt.
The review recommends the revival and reinvigoration of deferred sentences which have shown promising results in Northern Ireland, and an extension of the period of deferment from six to twelve months.
The ISR recommends that confiscation orders should be modernised and clarified so that they are proportionate and realistic. This may avoid filling prisons with offenders who are unable to pay the orders. Recommendations are made about improved, modern technology being required. Other additional suggested orders can be found in chapter three.
More controversial recommendations are the release points for all prisoners. The ISR notes that the necessary but hasty early release schemes have added layers of complexity for offenders and for victims in knowing when people will be released.
The Review recommends a three-stage process of custody, post custody and at risk for managing and releasing offenders. It recommends that most sexual and violent offenders should be released having served one half of their sentence if they have constructively engaged with the prison regime. Those who have not would be released at the two-thirds stage. The periods of time that prisoners are recalled on licence should be limited. Open prisons should be more widely used.
For prisoners serving an extended sentence, where the court has assessed the offender as dangerous, the ISR recommends that, provided the parole board considers it appropriate, the prisoner could be released having served half of the sentence into the community with significant post-custody supervision.
Whether the Government will adopt these more radical proposals remains to be seen.
Plainly, much of what is recommended in the Review requires significant financial investment into the probation service, the prison service, housing and third party sector organisations which assist those released from custody. The current providers of tagging and monitoring equipment would have to comply with their contractual obligations and monitor those released.
Judicial Salary:
The Lord Chancellor has increased judicial salaries by 4% rather than by the 4.75% recommended by the Senior Salaries Review Body. The SSRB pointed out the marked rise in workloads, the poor condition of the court estate and the persistent difficulty in filling judicial vacancies. A district judge campaign this year resulted in only 51/100 vacancies being filled. Plainly any changes to the Criminal Justice System suggested in the Leveson Review will require Judges to undertake the burden of an additional workload. The Lord Chancellor has commissioned the SSRB to conduct a review of the judicial salary structure.
The CBA and the Judiciary:
On the 6th June 2025 a group of criminal barristers from across England and Wales will meet with Resident Judges at the Resident Judges’ Annual Conference to discuss ways in which we can work collaboratively to improve retention levels at the criminal Bar. The leadership teams at the CBA and the Bar Council have been working together with the judiciary to consider ways to do this. We are extremely grateful to Lord Justice Nicholas Green, the Senior Presiding Judge and to Lady Justice Philippa Whipple for their considerable efforts to ensure that this event takes place.
The Bar Council Working Lives Survey:
Please do complete this important survey so that the criminal Bar’s wishes and feelings are plain for the Bar Council and all those who read the survey moving forward. The closing date is today so please find time to do this. You will have received an email from the Bar Council with the link to the survey on it.
The Bar Conference June 2025:
The 2025 Bar Council Conference will be held in Birmingham on the 7th June 2025. There is a Bar Mess on Friday 6th June 2025 for those travelling there the night before. There are still some spaces left for the event. The programme for the event is here. The event has keynote addresses from Lady Chief Justice Carr and Sarah Sackman KC MP, Minister of State, a panel on the current state of the justice system headed by FT journalist, Alistair Gray, and sessions on wellbeing, public inquiries, ethics, the future of family law and public law, bullying and career pathways.
Heidi Stonecliffe KC
Vice Chair of the Bar Council:
We were delighted to see that the Bar Council has elected Heidi to be its Vice Chair in 2026. She will succeed Kirsty Brimelow KC in the role when Kirsty becomes Chair.
Heidi is a member of the CBA and works for the Crown Prosecution Service. We look forward to working with her in the years to come. She will bring the talents and skills of the employed Bar into the public arena and we have no doubt that she will fight for change for the Criminal Bar in her leadership roles. We wish her every success.
Yours,
Mary Prior KC
Chair, The Criminal Bar Association