The Legal Aid Agency has brought into force updated guidance on criminal costs assessment and supervision from 31 July 2026, applying to providers operating under the 2025 Standard Crime Contract. The contract publication states that the Crime Contract governs criminal legal aid services in England and Wales from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2035, and its update log records a further change on 31 July 2026 to the crime supervisor guidance. (gov.uk)
The immediate policy change sits in the Criminal Bills Assessment Manual. In its 31 July notice, the Legal Aid Agency said it had made bespoke prison law funding changes after discussions with the Association of Prison Lawyers. The linked manual's version history records July 2026 amendments to costs assessment guidance across sections 3, 8 and 9, and specific revisions to prison law in section 13, with the updated guidance to be applied to assessments from 31 July 2026. (gov.uk)
That matters because the prison law chapter now gives a more explicit route through Parole Board work. The manual sets out when providers may submit a substantive Parole Board claim, when a reconsideration or set-aside hearing can generate a separate Advocacy Assistance standard fee, and how costs must be kept separate before and after a direction for further hearing. It also tells assessors to look closely at file evidence where a client's vulnerabilities mean more time and care were needed. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
A second strand is the treatment of administrative work. The revised CBAM repeats that purely administrative activity, office overheads and the preparation, checking or signing of a costs claim are not recoverable. At the same time, it allows reasonable time for delegated functions in prison law, including considering next steps and completing application forms, with up to 30 minutes identified as reasonable in that example. The Agency says the wider aim is to reduce provider burden and bring criminal guidance closer to existing civil legal aid arrangements. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The correspondence rules have also been tightened into clearer operational language. The manual says letters and telephone calls must be directed to progressing the case, and that reminder emails or text messages about hearings may be remunerated as letters or calls. By contrast, administrative telephone calls, such as appointment-setting with no legal content, remain overheads and are not claimable. That clarification is likely to be relevant well beyond prison law because the Legal Aid Agency says the amended principles have wider effect across criminal legal aid cases. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Alongside the billing changes, the supervisor guidance has been refreshed in Version 2 dated July 2026. The Legal Aid Agency says the update reflects amendments made by the Solicitors Regulation Authority on 12 June 2026 after the Court of Appeal's Mazur judgment. The SRA's own explanation says its expanded guidance addresses what non-regulated individuals may and may not do under supervision in litigation work, with case studies intended to help firms test whether their arrangements are lawful. (gov.uk)
For providers, the practical effect is not a fixed new staffing ratio but a clearer audit trail. The LAA guidance says there are no fixed supervisor-to-caseworker ratios under the 2025 Standard Crime Contract. Instead, effectiveness is judged through supervisor accessibility, supervisory arrangements and file reviews, and the guidance says it is signposting existing obligations rather than imposing freestanding new contract duties. The operational inference is that firms now need stronger records on file review frequency, supervisor availability and the reasons supporting billed work, because the same documents are used by assessors, contract managers and operational assurance staff when claims and files are reviewed. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)