I am pleased to announce today that further significant progress has been made during the summer parliamentary recess towards the establishment of the UK Supreme Court.

The newly renovated Middlesex Guildhall building was formally handed over, from the Ministry of Justice, to Jenny Rowe, Chief Executive of the Supreme Court, on 1 August 2009.

The Fees Order specifying the fees payable to the court was laid in Parliament on 4 August 2009 following a full public consultation. The civil fees payable in the Appellate Committee were last amended in 2000. The vast majority of respondents to consultation agreed that it was equitable to uprate the fees payable in the UK Supreme Court to take account of inflation over that time. In addition, the fees order introduces a robust system of fee concessions to ensure that access to justice is ensured.

While respondents to consultation agreed that the fees for devolution cases should be brought into line with civil fees generally, they were concerned that to make this change in one step represented too steep an increase—we have therefore decided to implement this change in stages.

A review of the fees will be undertaken in approximately three years to take account of the actual running costs of the Supreme Court.