Rates for counsel undertaking work for central government to go up by a quarter from April 

Rates for the Attorney General’s civil panel counsel are to be increased by 25% for all work carried out from 1 April 2025, the Treasury Solicitor has announced.

This comes after representations to the Government made by the Bar Council and the Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA), which said that some rates had not been increased since the panels were first introduced in 1997.

In April 2024 ALBA published a report noting that, if the rates had increased in line with inflation, they would be almost double in value. The rates will now be reviewed every two years.

According to the report, an overwhelming majority of respondents to a survey stated that, when professional expenses and tax are taken into account, “it is now simply uneconomic to do any volume of work at government rates; the opportunity cost is now too great”.

Respondents acknowledged that the disparity between government rates and other rates had existed in 1997 but suggested that the disparity had increased significantly since then.

The Bar Council said it had also raised concerns with the Attorney General and Treasury Solicitor about the lack of diversity on the panels and pointed to the low rates as a factor in the difficulty recruiting to panels.

Barbara Mills KC, Chair of the Bar Council, said: “We welcome this uplift in fees for counsel but, given that the rates have not been increased in more than 20 years, they have fallen very far behind inflation. We regard this as a necessary first step but further uplifts will be required if the government is to attract barristers to this important work.

“We’re grateful to ALBA for gathering the evidence that helped to make the compelling case for fees to be increased and we welcome the government’s commitment to more frequent reviews in future.

“The Attorney General and Treasury Solicitor have listened to, and share, our concerns about the lack of diversity on the panels We hope this uplift, and future increases, will encourage more barristers to apply for panel work.”

The Government Legal Department announced last month that the Attorney General’s London Panel Counsel recruitment round for 2025 is open. Applications are welcome from barristers and those with Higher Rights of Audience. Applications should be submitted by midday on 5 March via GOVUK. More information can be found here.