Meeting of the Parliament 18 February 2026 [Draft]
As the member and Parliament know, I have been working closely with the legal profession over the past couple of years to see what can be put in place to improve access to justice. One of the main things that we can do is provide an uplift. Regulations to do that were laid in Parliament on 28 January. If the measure is approved, it will provide a 13 per cent increase in legal aid fees and fixed payments for solicitors.
As I said to Paul McLennan, once the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025 has been commenced, it will remove restrictions that prevent charities, law centres and citizens advice bodies from directly employing solicitors.
I have set up an independent fee review mechanism group to explore the fundamental changes that are required to create a legal assistance system for the 21st century. In addition, the Scottish budget has made provision to double the number of places for legal aid traineeships from 20 to 40 in order to improve the sustainability and capacity of the legal profession. The work continues.