The Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2026 make a targeted change to Crown Court legal aid payments in England and Wales. According to the statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the regulations were made on 1 July 2026, laid before Parliament on 3 July 2026 and come into force on 28 July 2026. The instrument amends Schedule 1 to the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, which contains the Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme. That schedule sets the graduated, fixed and miscellaneous fees payable to advocates for proceedings in the Crown Court.
Regulation 2 first alters the rule on wasted preparation fees. The explanatory note to the instrument states that the minimum trial length before an advocate is eligible to apply falls from five days to two days. In practice, that extends eligibility to a wider set of shorter Crown Court trials. For providers, the immediate significance is that the previous five-day threshold will no longer apply to new in-scope determinations from 28 July 2026.
The second amendment concerns the additional preparation fee in paragraph 18A of Schedule 1. The regulation removes the wording that excluded guilty plea cases and increases the fee from £62 to £81. The result is that an additional preparation payment can now be claimed where a case ends in a guilty plea, provided the case otherwise falls within the amended rule. The rate increase is £19, taking the fixed amount to roughly 31% above the previous figure.
Regulation 3 sets a precise commencement boundary. The new rules apply only to services provided following a determination under section 16 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 made on or after 28 July 2026. That point matters for billing and case administration. The decisive date is the date of the legal aid determination, not simply the hearing date or the point at which preparation work was carried out, so older determinations remain on the previous remuneration basis.
The legal authority is set out on the face of the instrument. The Lord Chancellor made the regulations using powers in sections 2(3) and 41 of the 2012 Act, and the instrument was signed by Sarah Sackman, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, on 1 July 2026. This is an amendment to an existing fee framework rather than a wider rewrite of criminal legal aid remuneration. The 2013 regulations have been amended before, but this instrument is confined to two specific payment points within Schedule 1.
The explanatory note says no full impact assessment was produced because no, or no significant, effect on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. Even so, the change is operationally relevant for chambers, firms and legal aid teams handling Crown Court work. From 28 July 2026, practitioners will need to check whether a representation determination falls on or after that date before applying the revised rules. In plain terms, the instrument widens access to payment in some shorter trials, opens the additional preparation fee to guilty plea cases and raises that payment to £81.