In early April 2025, and subject to parliamentary approval, the Ministry of Justice will increase 171 court and tribunal fees to account for changes to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The income generated from these uplifts will help to support the efficient and effective running of His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).
The department recovers a modest contribution towards the costs of providing HMCTS services from court and tribunal users, where they can afford to do so. The department has a history of increasing court and tribunal fees by inflation to ensure that fees keep pace with increased costs to HMCTS as a result of the general rise in prices, while at the same time minimising the cost to the taxpayer.
The majority of the 171 fees in scope will be increased by 3.2% to reflect the change in CPI between March 2023 and March 2024, with a small number of fees increased by 13.5% to reflect backdated inflation to March 2022. These fee increases are all rounded to the nearest pound. These fee changes will produce a significant level of additional funding that will go towards improving service delivery, subsidising the cost of related court and tribunal services for which we do not charge a fee, and reducing the overall cost to the taxpayer.
The Help with Fees remissions scheme remains available for those with lower financial means who are unable to afford a court or tribunal fee.
As well as increasing fees, the department will be reducing the value of a further 24 fees to ensure they remain aligned with the latest estimate of their underlying cost.
The government’s intention is for the changes to go live from 1st April for applications received by courts or tribunals on or after that date. Until then, the current fees will continue to apply. Stephanie Kyriacou, family lawyer at Freeths said:
“Given the current cost of living crisis, this will not be welcomed news for families looking to embark on family court proceedings, as they may opt to stay in unhappy relationships due to the rising costs to litigate matters.
Alternatives to commencing court proceedings should always be considered before issuing an application in the family court in any event and perhaps the increased fees will make more people stop and consider the alternatives to court, such as mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluations and other forms of dispute resolution.”
