Fees in the United Kingdom Supreme Court

Ref: 04.09

The UK Supreme Court, which replaces the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords, is due to open for business in October 2009.

The above paper sets out for consultation the fees that will be charged in the new Supreme Court. The Government policy is that civil court fees should be set, so far as possible at levels that reflect the cost of progressing cases. However, it was recognised that the benefits of Supreme Court rulings accrue not only to users of the Supreme Court but also more widely to all users of the Civil Justice system.

As a result, during the passage of the Constitutional Reform Act through Parliament, it was agreed that the civil costs in the Supreme Court should be borne by both Supreme Court users and the generality of litigants bringing civil cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition, a contribution will also be obtained from Scotland for the usage of the court, which will be for the Scottish Parliament to determine. This will allow fees to be set at a level that will not prohibit access to justice.

To ensure that access to justice is not denied to any sector of society a system of fee concessions is proposed which updates the current process and aims to bring more clarity and transparency into the system than is found at present.

The consultation can be accessed on the following Ministry of Justice website:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/fees-in-the-uk-supreme-court.pdf

The proposed fee levels, together with remissions and concessions are set out in the consultation and the views of members are sought. The deadline for consultations is 5th May 2009