Submit a Bulk Claim (SaBC)
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-09)

How SaBC works: how to claim, bulkloading, fee codes and guidance.

Submit a Bulk Claim enables providers to upload Legal Help, Crime Lower and Mediation monthly submissions.

Government confirms increases to some Civil and Crime legal aid fees taking effect on 22 December.

Civil

On 1 December, the statutory instrument uplifting all claimable rates for immigration and housing controlled work was laid. This will come into effect for matters opened on or after 22 December 2025. The uprated fees, linked to the single fee codes, can be found here New Fee Codes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692efbf8ce50d215cae9637c/New_Fee_Codes.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 174 KB).

Where applicable and only for uplifted fees, we are also uplifting the immigration profit cost and total cost limits that are set out in the 2024 Standard Civil Contract Immigration Specification (subject to a contract consultation).

Crime

Regulations were also laid on 1 December which will introduce the following fee increases for criminal legal aid cases beginning on or after 22 December 2025:
- Harmonised police station fees to £320 with the police station escape fee threshold revised from £960 to £650 (excl. VAT).
- 10% uplifts to fees for the magistrates’ court (including the Youth Court)
- Prison law fees increased by 24%
- 10% uplift to solicitor fees for some appeals work
(See document above for new crime codes).

Frequently asked questions on the uplifted fees - Fee uplift FAQs (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6937fbc5cfacd5e888491c35/Fee_Uplifts_FAQs.pdf) (PDF, 250 KB, 4 pages)

Please note that the new system will not be live in December. We will notify you in advance of the go-live date. Until then you should continue to utilise the contingency process for your November submission.

The new Submit a Bulk Claim system will not be going live in December as previously anticipated. Your November Controlled Work, Crime Lower & Mediation submission values will need to be submitted through the contingency process instead, in order to receive payment at the start of January.

Due to manual processing time, the deadline for November submissions will be the 17 December.

We apologise for the short turnaround time; however, it is necessary to ensure that payments can be made as expected on 5 January.

The contingency process is in operation and you should use the contingency submission form, here Contingency Monthly Contract Submission (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69282fe3a245b0985f03419d/Contingency_Monthly_Contract_Submission_template.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 38.4 KB), to send your November submission claim values to the LAA. Please email it to xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx)

Submissions received after the 17 December will be paid as soon as possible.

If your monthly claim value is £0, please submit a nil return using the form.

If you don’t wish to make use of the contingency process, please don’t provide any return. In this instance, late claims will be accepted when full submissions are made.

You do not need to include any adjustment for Escape Cases that have been submitted for assessment in your monthly submission. Escape cases can be submitted and will be process as usual and the LAA will make an adjustment to the monthly payment to account for any additional sums due following assessment.

This gives providers and software vendors more time to prepare for the launch of SaBC and more time to prepare their contingency claims for future submission. We will share further detail when you’re able to do so. Please continue to reach out to xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx) if you require support with SaBC preparation.

When to submit your claim

You should make your submission between the 1st and 20th of the month following the submission period. Try to make sure your submission is at the beginning of the month as this allows maximum time to offer support and resolve any questions.

Please note, that providers will be updated when SaBC has been made available for use.

How to claim

Once the contingency comes to an end, all claims for controlled work, mediation and crime lower work must be submitted via Submit a Bulk Claim (SaBC).

SaBC is a digital billing service that allows and validates monthly submissions online and calculates fees.

To access Submit a Bulk Claim, you will need to have a verified account with Sign in to legal aid services (SILAS) and Submit a Bulk Claim will need to have been added to your profile. Once this has been done, and you are logged into SILAS, you will be able to click on a link to access the Submit a Bulk Claim landing page. See the Legal Aid Agency training website (https://legalaidlearning.justice.gov.uk/sign-in-to-legal-aid-services/) for guidance on how to create an account with and use SILAS.

How SaBC works

Providers will be able to access the service via SILAS and can upload their bulkload or case management system exported data file directly into SaBC. The service will check the file and calculate the price of each claim within it. If any information is missing or if fundamental errors have been made within the submission, it will be rejected prior to calculating costs.

You can find further information on how to use SaBC in the Guide to SaBC which will be released shortly.

Changes for providers

Unlike in CWA, providers are unable to enter the details of each claim directly into SaBC – instead the submission must be uploaded via a bulkload spreadsheet export or via a file exported from their case management system (updated CSV, XML, and TXT exports).

Using the bulkload spreadsheet and compatibility

If your case management system isn’t compatible with SaBC, you can still bulkload your submission data using the Updated bulk upload spreadsheet (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68e680eaef1c2f72bc1e4f41/NEW_Provider_Bulkload_Spreadsheet_v1.38.xls) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 10 MB).

You can find further details on the completion of the spreadsheet in the SaBC Bulkload Spreadsheet User Guide (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68ed207ea8398380cb4acff8/251013_SaBC_bulkload-spreadsheet-guidance.docx) (MS Word Document, 1.94 MB)

In light of the introduction of SaBC and the updating of the Provider bulkload spreadsheet, the claim amendment request forms will be updated and published prior to the launch of the system. These forms will reflect the addition of the new ‘Fee Code’ field.

Each claim will need to include a new, single fee code

This change has been required to enable us to deliver the new service at speed.

You will need to include the new fee codes in any SaBC submission for them to be accepted by the new service.

When the CWA monthly submissions contingency ends, any future claims must be made in Submit a Bulk Claim in order to receive monthly payments.

To support you to make this change, we are working with software vendors who are updating their systems to accommodate and enable the new fee codes. Most vendors have confirmed that they are going to auto-generate the codes in the claim exports.

We acknowledge that this is a considerable change and we are working as hard as possible to minimise the impact for providers, including working with a group of providers to design the service. However, due to the need to deliver a working service as early as possible, the initial release will only support the submission and pricing of claims.

We are developing a full suite of training and guidance and will begin rolling this out as soon as possible. As a first step, we wanted to provide you with key information on the new system to help you prepare for implementation.
- Validation overview for providers (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68dfc8e2c487360cc70ca0dd/Validation_overview_for_Providers__v1_.pdf) (PDF, 143 KB, 3 pages)
- SaBC FAQs (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690e1efd47ad122f854627e9/SaBC_FAQs_wc_03.11.25.docx) (MS Word Document, 174 KB)
In future, when uploading claim submissions into SaBC, you will need to include the new fee codes.

We have been made aware of some providers experiencing issues with macros on the new bulkload spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is published on the official GOV.UK website, which is the trusted source of documentation for the Legal Aid Agency. You should have confidence in downloading files from here. All materials undergo standard assurance and integrity checks before publication.

The spreadsheet makes use of macros for data validation and generation of a file for upload into our systems. Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide a non-macro version without removing this functionality. The file can be opened with macros disabled, but users would need to complete data validation and file generation manually.

We understand that you may have a policy in place to restrict the use of macros. Where possible, you may wish to review these settings to allow macros from trusted and verified sources, such as the GOV.UK website.

Thank you for raising your concerns and for working with us as we establish these new processes.

Claims relating to the contingency period

Most software vendors have also confirmed that they can enable claim exports generated during the contingency period to be re-run with the new codes included, which supports our intention to require all all contingency submissions to be made in Submit a Bulk Claim. However, we recognise that there may be additional work for you to update claim exports from the contingency period and we are continuing to explore options to minimise this. We will confirm how we will ask you to approach these imminently.

Calculating value of an outcome

Upon successful uploading and acceptance of the submission, SaBC will price each line and will provide the total value of the submission.

Providers will also be able to view the calculated price of each line of the submission and can click on each individually to view how that sum has been determined.

In future, providers will be able to export the details of the claims and the calculated price, from SaBC.

The value for each claim will be calculated will be in accordance with the relevant provisions in the respective Civil/Crime Remuneration Regulations and Standard Civil/Crime Contracts, with further information available in the reporting codes guidance below.

Reporting New matter starts for controlled work and mediation

‘New matter starts’ is the LAA contracting term used for controlled work and mediation, e.g., the first meeting a provider has with a client.

How to report new matter starts depends on what method of submission you’re using.

LAA’s bulkload spreadsheet

Enter new matter starts into the controlled matter start form (CMSF) area of the spreadsheet.

CMS file

Contact your software supplier to find out if your CMS bulkload file contains your new matter starts.

Guidance Documents

The Guidance for SaBC Claims (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68ef82bca8398380cb4ad0e9/Guidance_for_SaBC_Claims_V2.0__November_2025.pdf) (PDF, 1.67 MB, 172 pages) includes help on selecting the appropriate Fee Code and other codes (e.g. matter types) when reporting completed civil and mediation work.

The Guidance for Reporting Crime Lower Work 2025 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692efc24b3b9afff34e963b0/Guidance_for_Reporting_Crime_Lower_Work_-_December_2025.pdf) (PDF, 2.33 MB, 135 pages) includes help on selecting the appropriate Fee Code and other codes (e.g. stage reached) for completed criminal work. The changes made are also summarised in the Guide to the Changes in Reporting Crime Lower Work (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692dc39ece50d215cae962f8/Guide_to_the_Changes_in_Reporting_Crime_Lower_Work.pdf) (PDF, 598 KB, 40 pages)

The Submit a Bulk Claim User Guide (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68f9fbb430c331c88be6efe5/Submit_a_Bulk_Claim_User_Guide_V1.1.docx) (MS Word Document, 3.73 MB) sets out instructions on how to use the new system, SaBC, to bulk upload a monthly submission for Civil (Legal Help), Crime Lower or Mediation for legal aid providers.

The Fees Uplift Guidance (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692ecd9dce50d215cae9633b/Fees_Uplift_Guidance.pdf) (PDF, 139 KB, 9 pages) is a guidance on how to claim the higher Housing and Debt and Immigration and Asylum fees for matters opened on or after 22 December.

Contact

Email xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx) if you have any questions regarding your submission.

We understand this is a significant change, at short notice, and are committed to working closely with you to support a smooth transition.

We are keen to understand more about your monthly submissions, how you usually submit and the impacts of this change on your usual operations, you can help us by sharing your feedback using this link - New ‘Submit a Bulk Claim’ service - Provider feedback form (https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/TV8D51/).