Naomi Long

Mrs Long yesterday told MLAs that she is set to meet with the chair and vice-chair of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) this week to discuss their withdrawal of services in legally-aided Crown Court cases.

However, she continues to reject a suggestion from the Lady Chief Justice to resolve the dispute through mediation with the CBA and the Bar Council.

In her statement to the Northern Ireland Assembly yesterday, the minister again accused barristers of holding “victims of crime and the wider justice system to ransom” by taking industrial action.

The CBA has been taking action since November 2024 as part of a campaign for legal aid fee increases, and last week escalated this to a full withdrawal of services in the Crown Court.

The withdrawal began on the same day that a 16 per cent interim uplift in legal aid fees took effect, backdated to 1 December 2024 — but barristers say this is too little, too late.

Mrs Long said: “Last week, I took the unprecedented step of writing to all 219 barristers who were in receipt of Crown Court legal aid payments in the past 12 months, setting out clearly what has already been achieved through the working group and my willingness to work with the profession to bring the impasse to an end.

“I am pleased that the CBA has provided slightly more clarity on its current ask in response to that letter. I remain, as ever, committed to constructive engagement and am due to meet the chair and vice chair of the CBA this week. I hope that they are equally open to progress.

“Victims, witnesses and defendants deserve so much more, and we cannot deliver the service that they and wider society deserve if the system is continually brought to a halt.

“I have previously stated that that cycle simply cannot continue in the longer term, and I know, as will members [of the Assembly], that alternative models for delivery of services provided by the criminal Bar will have to be progressed at pace if the withdrawal does not conclude swiftly.

“As I have also said, that is not a step that I want to take, nor is it one that I would take lightly, but it is difficult, at this juncture, to see another way forward.”