The use of electronic bills is not required other than for costs recoverable between the parties in the categories of cases specified in the Part 47 Practice Direction.

Where costs are recoverable both against another party and against the Legal Aid Agency or Lord Chancellor the solicitor of the assisted person or legally aided client or person to whom civil legal services are provided is required by the Part 47 Practice Direction (para 13.2) to file a legal aid schedule. If an electronic bill of costs is served on the other person an electronic schedule of the costs recoverable against the Legal Aid Agency or Lord Chancellor may be prepared and filed as if it were an electronic bill.

The electronic schedule must (as with a paper schedule) set out by reference to the item numbers in the bill of costs, all the costs claimed as payable by another person, but the arithmetic in the schedule should claim those items at prescribed rates only (with or without any claim for enhancement).

Paper schedules are required to be divided so as to correspond with any divisions in the bill of costs and, where there has been a change in the prescribed rates during the period covered by the bill of costs, so as to deal separately with each change of rate. If the schedule is an electronic schedule, unless the format of the schedule already provides the requisite information it should incorporate a summary in a form comparable to the “Funding and Parts Table” in Precedent S to provide the information that would otherwise be provided by its division into parts.

Excerpt from the Senior Courts Costs Office Guide 2021