Civil Contingency Measures for Legal Aid Applications
New contingency arrangements for civil legal aid applications and amendments came into effect on Monday 15 December 2025.
From 15 December 2025, all civil legal aid applications, amendments, and prior authorities must be submitted via CCMS or Civil Apply. The previous contingency process, which allowed email submissions, ended on 12 December 2025.
A summary of the changes effective from Monday 15 December 2025:
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The LAA has stopped accepting Applications/Amendments and Prior Authorities or any other associated tasks by email from Friday 12 December 2025.
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All submissions should be submitted via CCMS/Civil Apply from Monday 15 December 2025. If any work has been submitted to the LAA but has yet to appear on CCMS, please continue to use the existing contingency arrangements.
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From the 1 December 2025 emergency representation granted under delegated functions will contain 24 weeks and £6,750 cost limitation. Any emergency representation granted under delegated functions in contingency prior to the 1 December 2025 will contain 32 weeks and £9,000.
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From 1 December 2025 providers will no longer have the authority to use delegated functions to amend a substantive certificate, providers will be required to submit amendment requests on CCMS where possible.
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Providers can until further notice withdraw funding where the application has not yet been uploaded onto CCMS under the circumstances listed in the contingency guidance.
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Contribution payments will continue to be waived for any applications until further notice.
Why is it happening now?
Now that system access has been restored, all applications and amendments will now be submitted via CCMS or Apply.
The following guide set the new contingency arrangements effective from Monday 15 December 2025. The scenarios when contingency should be used are:
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When a provider doesn’t have access to the system due to a particular technical issue which is only affecting them.
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When a wider issue is affecting system access for all providers.
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When work has been submitted under Contingency but is yet to appear on CCMS.
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When a provider is granted a new contract under ‘Always On’ and doesn’t have system access for the new contract.
Further information
Please see the FAQ page regarding the cyber-attack and our contingency processes.
Civil System Restoration – Handling of Contingency Work – GOV.UK