The Bar Council has asked the government to approve a new advocacy fee scheme to redress what it says is an imbalance in the levels of funding for complex and serious cases.

The re-drawn advocates’ graduated fee scheme (AGFS) for legally aided criminal defence cases in the Crown court also aims to address developments in the legal sector since the scheme was last changed in 2007.

The draft proposal said that since the last revision there have been nine rounds of ‘largely unfocused’ cuts to fees, which it said has left the scheme unrecognisable from what was designed eight years ago.

It also says that the old scheme was not fit for purpose with comparatively generous levels of funding for relatively minor cases.

‘There is no incentive for the best advocates to take on the most serious and complex work, there is career stagnation, a lack of retention of advocates at the criminal bar, and the relatively easy pickings at the lower end of the scheme create a clear incentive to brief cases on a commercial, rather than a quality basis,’ the Bar Council said.

The Bar Council has proposed recategorising offences in a way that reflects the complexity and seriousness of cases, introducing a single standard case category for basic cases and the restoration of separate payments for sentencing, plea and case management hearings and other ancillary hearings.

It also asked for advocacy fees to be ringfenced until the end of this parliament ‘to restore faith and signal a real commitment to long-term sustainability of quality advocacy in the Crown court'.

The Bar Council says its proposed method of grading cases will introduce certainty and reduce the administrative burden for the bar and Legal Aid Agency (LAA).

It also said the new scheme will help avoid lengthy disputes with the LAA over ‘page count’, under which fees are largely determined by the length of prosecution evidence.

Alistair MacDonald QC, chair of the Bar Council, said: ‘The last substantial revision of the scheme was in 2007. Since then, there have been many changes, such as the increased use of electronic evidence. A new scheme is therefore required.

‘The working group’s proposals are designed to operate within the Ministry of Justice’s existing AGFS budget. They reflect both the bar’s and the MoJ’s shared objectives of ensuring quality, certainty and simplicity.’