After weeks of indefinite strike action, 57% of the Criminal Bar Association’s members who voted on the government’s pay deal decided to accept a 15% increase in legal aid fees. It may sound generous but, as one barrister who voted against tells me, “in light of a previous 28% pay cut and rising inflation, it’s insufficient in my view”, which is why the demand was a 25% hike.
As the bestselling author who operates under the pseudonym The Secret Barrister puts it, “it is not going to bring back the 25% of criminal barristers who have left, nor is it going to persuade the juniors earning £12,000 a year to stick around”. There have been concessions, secured solely entirely by strike action – such as a backdated increase in payments, previously dismissed by the Ministry of Justice as legally impossible – but there is no confidence in the independence of a new pay review body. A return to strike action in the future is all but inevitable.
