Fee increases come into force on 1 September 2026 alongside uprates of civil and children’s templates

24 August 2026

The Scottish Government announced in January that legal aid fees will increase by 13% from 1 September 2026.

Regulations

The Legal Aid and Advice and Assistance (Fees) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026, will amend the fees regulations to increase solicitor’s fees for legal aid and advice and assistance (including ABWOR) by 13%.

Corresponding rises are being made to the financial limit amounts for advice and assistance specified in section 10(2) of the 1986 Act, beyond which solicitors are required to seek prior approval of SLAB before providing further advice and assistance.

Corrections and minor drafting changes to the Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) Regulations 2002 and the Legal Aid and Advice and Assistance (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026, which came into force on 1 June 2026, will also be applied.

The regulations are introduced following extensive engagement between the Scottish Government, Law Society of Scotland, Scottish Solicitors Bar Association and SLAB.

When will the fee increases be applied?

The fee increases apply to work done on or after 1 September 2026, subject to the exceptions listed below. Where work takes place over more than one date, the applicable fee is determined by the date on which the work ends.

The practical effect of this is that fees can be charged at the increased rate, where a block fee is completed after the coming into force date.

Similarly, where the account is chargeable on a detailed basis and a continuous item of work commenced before but concluded after the coming into force date, that work would be chargeable at the increased fee rates.

Exceptions

For work chargeable in respect of the aid types listed below, the increased fees apply only in relation to a case where the criminal legal assistance concerned is granted or made available on or after 1 September 2026:

  • Schedule 3, Part II, Regulation 17(1B), where the equivalent of a fixed payment can be claimed where certain criteria are met prior to a complaint being served
  • Schedule 3, Part III of the Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1996 (sections 19, 30 and 36(1)(a) of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016)
  • Schedule III, Part V of the Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1996 (table of fees allowable to solicitors for assistance by way of representation for proceedings under schedule 8 of the Terrorism Act 2000)
  • Criminal Legal Aid (Fixed Payments) (Scotland) Regulations 1999, in relation to summary criminal legal aid and summary criminal ABWOR.

Increases to initial authorised expenditure limits

The increased initial expenditure limits apply only in relation to a case where the grant of advice and assistance or ABWOR was made on or after 1 September 2026.

Summary Reforms

The regulations also amend the Criminal Legal Aid and Assistance by Way of Representation (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026, so that the amendments that are made by those Regulations to fixed payments, specifically the introduction of two new fees schedules 3 and 4, will also include a 13% fee increase when they come into force.

These regulations form part of the broader reforms to summary criminal legal assistance, and those changes do not come into force until 14 December 2026. More information will follow on those regulations in time for the coming into force date.

Civil and Children’s templates uprated alongside fee uplift

We have improved and uprated our Civil Advice and Assistance and ABWOR templates to coincide with the 13% legal aid fee uplift, with templates uprated by an additional 25% to reflect previous fee increases.

We have updated the wording of templates 2 (Asylum), 32 (Employment), and 33 (Employment Appeals) to bring the covered work items in line with current procedures. In addition, we have increased the value of template 48 (Naturalisation), which no longer reflected the cost of the work required. Once the 13% uplift is applied, the value of this template (48) will increase to £565.

We have also uprated our children’s template.

These changes should reduce the need to apply for increases in authorised expenditure, helping to cut down the bureaucracy involved in obtaining SLAB’s approval before commencing work.

Keycards

The initial authorised expenditure limits in all Civil, Children’s and Criminal Advice and Assistance and ABWOR have been increased to coincide with the solicitors’ fees increases also coming into force on 1 September 2026, therefore our Civil, Children’s and Criminal Keycards will be updated to the new limits, which you can find on:

  • pages 10 and 11 (Children’s)
  • page 11 (Civil)
  • page 14 (Criminal).

Legal Aid Online (LAOL)

Our systems and legal aid fees pages are set up to reflect these amendments when they come into force on 1 September.

More information

If you have any questions, please contact:

  • Solicitors fee increase
  • Templates and keycards