“Our legal aid system has been left neglected,” Courts Minister Sarah Sackman said as the government confirmed up to £92m more a year for criminal legal aid and set a single £320 fee for police station advice from 22 December. New regulations laid on 1 December put the change on a legal footing, with the North expected to feel the impact first in overnight call‑outs and rural cover.

The instrument sets a harmonised £320 fixed fee for all police station schemes and a £650 escape threshold nationwide-the point at which firms can bill above the fixed fee-scrapping the old postcode differences where Heathrow previously topped out at £315.86.

Magistrates’ and youth court fees rise (around 10%) alongside a 24% uplift for prison law and a 10% rise for selected appeals work. The Ministry of Justice says this first tranche lands on 22 December, with a second Statutory Instrument to follow for Crown Court litigators’ fees once Legal Aid Agency systems are ready.

Several nuts‑and‑bolts rates move up. Own‑client hourly rates are listed at £60.65 and £57.37, with routine letters and phone calls at £28.85. In the magistrates’ court, the standard appearance figure rises to £229.47. These are pulled directly from the schedules to the instrument.

Cashflow matters on the high street, so one tweak will be welcomed: the bar on interim payments when a defendant elects Crown Court trial-regulation 17A(3)-is removed. That allows litigators to claim interim payments earlier on cases previously stuck until the finish line.

There’s also a coverage change for parole cases. From 31 December, High Court proceedings about Parole Board release decisions that have been formally referred will be treated as criminal proceedings for legal aid purposes-tidying up funding for those challenges.

Assessors get more flexibility too. Upper limits on certain units of work can be extended on application under the 2025 Standard Crime Contract, and fees can be marked down for poor work or enhanced-by up to 100%-where a case genuinely demands exceptional effort or skill.

Why this matters in the North: police station advice makes up about 70% of Crime Lower workload but only around half of spend, and recent quarters showed station attendances rising. At the same time, the duty solicitor pool has fallen by roughly 26% since 2017-pressure that bites hardest in large rural patches as well as post‑industrial towns.

The Law Society has called the position “acute” and urged sustained investment. Ministers counter that, once fully implemented, solicitor funding will have risen by 24% since the 2021 independent review, with most changes taking effect on 22 December. The proof will be whether rotas stabilise through winter.

For Northern practices, the new £650 escape threshold should make long interviews and out‑of‑area call‑outs less of a loss‑maker. Press coverage in Lancashire has already highlighted rota gaps; the harmonised fee is designed to steady cover beyond the M62 as well as in city centres. A second SI to uplift Crown Court litigators’ fees is still due.