According to the statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Civil Legal Aid (Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 were made on 1 June 2026, laid before Parliament on 2 June 2026, and will come into force on 23 June 2026. The instrument extends to England and Wales and was signed by Sarah Sackman, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, acting by the authority of the Lord Chancellor. The regulations use powers in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to amend the Civil Legal Aid (Procedure) Regulations 2012. The explanatory note states that the purpose is to reverse selected changes introduced by the Criminal and Civil Legal Aid (Amendment) Regulations 2025.
One amendment affects regulation 37 on legal aid certificates. From 23 June 2026, when the Director of Legal Aid Casework decides that an individual qualifies for Licensed Work, the Director must issue a certificate to the provider and send a copy of that certificate to the individual. The explanatory note says the duty to send a copy to the individual was removed by the 2025 amendment regulations and is now being restored. That returns direct notification to the applicant and gives the funded person a formal record of the determination, rather than leaving the document flow solely between the Director and the provider.
A second amendment changes the wording in regulation 52(2)(c), which deals with emergency representation granted on limited information and documents. Where later material shows that the individual is not financially eligible for the relevant civil legal services, the rule will again say that the determination must be "revoked" rather than "withdrawn". The explanatory note is clear that this also reverses a 2025 drafting change. The financial eligibility test described in the rule is unchanged; what shifts for new cases from 23 June 2026 is the procedural term used in the regulations.
Regulation 3 adds a saving provision for older emergency representation decisions. The restored wording in regulation 52(2)(c) will not apply where the original determination that a person qualified for emergency representation was made before 23 June 2026. For those earlier cases, the present position stays in place. If further information or documents later show that the person is financially ineligible, the determination is to be "withdrawn" rather than "revoked". That creates a clear date split for providers and administrators handling files across the changeover.
The Ministry of Justice presents the instrument as a limited procedural adjustment rather than a wider policy change to civil legal aid entitlement. The explanatory note states that the 2012 Procedure Regulations govern how determinations are made under sections 9 and 10 of the 2012 Act, which cover qualification for civil legal aid services. The same note also says no full impact assessment has been produced because no, or no significant, effect on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. A review of possible effects is instead set out in the Explanatory Memorandum published alongside the instrument.
For applicants, the most visible change is straightforward: from 23 June 2026, a person who qualifies for Licensed Work should again receive a copy of the certificate recording that decision. In a system where documentary notice can affect case progress and later queries, that is a practical administrative correction. For providers and casework teams, the more technical task is to apply the correct wording to emergency representation decisions by reference to the date on which the determination was made. On the face of the instrument, the change is procedural rather than a revision to the range of services covered by civil legal aid, but it restores two rules that the Government removed in 2025 and has now chosen to reinstate.