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<p>At present, 17% of all crime accounts are paid under the Standard Monthly Payment
(‘SMP’) model. The remainder have opted for Variable Monthly Payments, which pays
the actual value of the claim submitted each month. Firms can elect to be paid by
either model, according to which may be most advantageous to them. SMPs relate to
Controlled Work services only, and therefore reflect a proportion of a provider’s
total revenue.</p><p>The number of those accounts paid via SMP which have seen a reduction
in payments since July 2020 represents 6% of all crime accounts. Where a reduction
is necessary, this takes effect following the Legal Aid Agency notifying providers
of this in advance. Firms facing financial hardship can discuss payment options further
with their LAA Contract Manager.</p><p>The LAA has implemented several changes to
maintain cashflow to firms and to allow firms to be paid more quickly – through these
changes we can inject up to £51 million per year into criminal legal aid. We have
begun a review into how criminal lawyers are compensated for their work: <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/criminal-legal-aid/criminal-legal-aid-review/"
target="_blank">https://consult.justice.gov.uk/criminal-legal-aid/criminal-legal-aid-review/</a>.</p><p>In
addition to the support schemes offered by the government, we have continued to pay
providers on time and introduced a number of measures to speed up payments to providers.
All of the measures taken by the LAA are set out on our gov.uk page: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#financial-relief-page"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#financial-relief-page.</a></p>
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