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<p>Up to the end of September 2021, which is the latest period that official statistics
exist for, £10 million was spent on accelerated measure in total. The accelerated
measures are split across three funding schemes: the Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme
(AGFS) and the Litigator’s Graduated Fee Scheme (LGFS), which provide remuneration
to advocates and litigators in the Crown Court, and the crime lower funding scheme
which provides remuneration to advocates and litigators in the magistrates’ court.</p><p>
</p><p>In total £2.8 million has been spent on accelerated measures applicable to
the AGFS and £0.4 million has been spent on accelerated measures applicable to the
LGFS. The remaining spend has been under the crime lower scheme.</p><p> </p><p>The
actual spend to date under the accelerated measures is lower than expected at this
point. This is due to a number of factors, including the impact of COVID-19 on the
court system, which has slowed the rate at which new cases are disposed of by the
courts, meaning that the build-up of expenditure on these measures has been generally
slower than anticipated. Additionally, there have been lower than expected numbers
of providers making claims where they are eligible to do so under certain accelerated
items such as the fixed fee for consideration of unused material. In response to this,
the Legal Aid Agency has increased its communications regarding claiming accelerated
items and has added prompts to the digital payment system to encourage providers to
claim the fixed fee in eligible cases. We expect the rate of payments to increase
in the coming months.</p>
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