Preparing for new Summary Criminal Legal Assistance system: further updates from 14 December 2026

A short video explaining the reforms is available below. It covers two significant changes:

1. Expanded automatic legal aid for summary custody and undertaking cases
2. New Special Urgency (SU) payments for urgent work in cited cases.

Extension of automatic legal aid

Automatic legal aid will be extended to all cases where a client appears from custody or on an undertaking and the case concludes with:

• a guilty plea;
• the Procurator Fiscal accepting a not guilty plea; or
• the Procurator Fiscal deciding not to call the case.

Automatic legal aid will be available to all solicitors, with no eligibility tests or prior approval required. Solicitors must notify SLAB through the online system within 14 days. We cannot accept late intimations.

If a not guilty plea is later tendered, or is likely to be,  the solicitor can:

• convert the case to summary criminal legal aid by providing the client’s financial details; or
• apply for summary criminal legal aid from the outset where full cover is likely to be needed, for example where the plea is uncertain or a not guilty plea is anticipated.

Once granted, summary criminal legal aid replaces automatic legal aid, and earlier work is included in the summary criminal fixed payment.

Fixed fees will be available in automatic legal aid cases and will also apply to duty solicitors. Following the 13% fee increase implemented in September, the fixed fees are:

• £646.36 for Sheriff Court cases
• £393.15 for JP Court cases.

For duty solicitors, these fixed fees will replace the current court duty payments, which will no longer be available.

New SU payments for urgent cited cases

SU payments will cover urgent work in cited cases where there is not enough time to obtain a legal aid decision before the work is required. Payment remains available if the subsequent application is refused or not granted.

Examples include:

• attending a pleading diet, where a guilty plea is tendered
• considering important evidence disclosed shortly before, and appearing at  an imminent case management hearing.

The payments available will be:

• £84.75 where one court appearance is required
• £169.50 where more than one appearance is required.

If the client pleads guilty, or the case otherwise concludes during the SU period, the full fixed payment is payable.

Conditions for SU cover

There is no separate application for SU cover. Solicitors must apply for summary criminal legal aid within 14 days of starting work. We cannot accept late applications. The following conditions must also be met:

1. a complaint has been served on the accused;
2. the accused has been cited to appear within the next seven days;
3. in JP Court cases, it is in the interests of justice that legal aid should be made available;
4. in Sheriff Court cases, the court has refused to adjourn the case to allow an application for summary criminal legal aid to be made;
5. the solicitor reasonably assesses that the client is financially eligible for legal aid; and
6. the application for summary criminal legal aid is submitted within 14 days of commencing work for the client.

These new payments are not paid in addition to the fixed fee if legal aid is granted, but they do  remove the financial risk of carrying out urgent work for a client before legal aid has been determined.

Fixed fee payment arrangements

The full summary criminal fixed payment (£646.36 in the Sheriff Court and £393.15 in the JP Court) is payable where:

• summary criminal legal aid is granted, regardless of plea;
• a solicitor or duty solicitor acts under automatic legal aid and the case concludes with a guilty plea, the Procurator Fiscal accepting a not guilty plea, or the Procurator Fiscal deciding not to call the case; or
• a solicitor acts under SU arrangements, and the case concludes during the SU period before legal aid is refused.

Where work carried out under automatic legal aid or SU arrangements does not lead to the conclusion of the case, the payments available will be:

• £84.75 where the work involves one court diet
• £169.50 where the work involves two or more court diets.

Transfers of agency

Most transfers of agency will continue as at present: solicitors will share the core fee equally, while any additional payment will go to the solicitor who carried out the relevant work.

Where a solicitor changes during automatic legal aid or SU cover, the outgoing solicitor receives the applicable safety-net payment. If the full core fee later becomes payable, the incoming solicitor receives the balance.

For example, if the Sheriff Court core fee is £646.36 and the outgoing solicitor has received £84.75, the incoming solicitor receives £561.61.

More information

We will publish further guidance as well host webinars in November on the new provisions and associated system changes.

Please contact Kingsley Thomas, Head of Criminal Legal Assistance, by email on thomaski@slab.org.uk if you have any questions on the upcoming changes.