Law Society calls £404m spent on court agency staff an ‘expensive sticking plaster’
The Law Society has hit out at HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), after the government admitted spending £404m on court agency staff over a five-year period.
The solicitors’ association called the government’s use of agency staff an “expensive sticking plaster,” as it said the £404m sum “could be put to better use”.
“To ensure some form of stability, the Ministry of Justice needs to look at training and retaining permanent staff rather than relying on agency staff and using up significant amounts of funding,” the Law Society told Morning Wire
The comments come after Tory minister James Cartlidge revealed HMCTS spent more than £404m on agency staff between 2017 to 2022.
In the financial year 2020-21, HMCTS spent more than £91m on employing 2,174 agency staff, compared to £76m in 2017-18, £70m in 2018-19, and £78m in 2019-20.
Meanwhile, HMCTS spent almost £89m employing 2,332 agency staff in 2021-22 – meaning almost 14 per cent of the service’s ~17,000 staff were employed by third party agencies last year.
The agency staff expenditures follow reports that HMCTS has struggled to keep hold of staff, in the face of low morale and below average salaries.
“HM Courts and Tribunals Service has previously admitted the government needed to address the fact that court staff are paid around £3,000 less than workers with equivalent roles in other civil service departments, and this may be a factor in staff turnover,” the Law Society said.
A HMCTS spokesperson said: “Temporary frontline staff helped us keep the justice system moving during the pandemic and have provided much needed expertise and flexibility as we modernise our court and tribunal service as part of our £1.3 billion Reform programme.”
The news comes as criminal barristers are currently voting on plans to strike, over calls for greater investment in the criminal justice system.