SaBC police station claims: what the attendance note must feed the upload
SaBC doesn't invent claim data. Your monthly file either carries clean fields from the attendance note, or it rejects. For police station attendances that means Fee Code INVC. This is a field map: what the note must feed the Submit a Bulk Claim upload, what fails first, and how to keep the monthly rhythm.
Key takeaways
- Police station attendance claims go through SaBC under Fee Code INVC.
- The attendance note is the source of truth for UFN, DSCC, station/scheme IDs, times, and net costs.
- Missing DSCC, bad UFN, or unusable time blocks are classic pre-assessment rejects.
- Upload by the 20th for work finished in the previous calendar month.
- For UFNs from 22 December 2025: one fixed fee £320, escape threshold £650 (ex VAT) under SI 2025/1251. Confirm live figures before you bill.
1. What SaBC expects on an INVC line
Submit a Bulk Claim replaced CWA bulkload for crime lower. One office, one area of law, one file per month (CSV, XML, or TXT from the LAA spreadsheet or your CMS export).
For attendance at the station, use Fee Code INVC. SaBC pays the Police Station Scheme fixed fee from the Police Station ID. Report the matching Stage Reached code and the other INVC fields the guidance requires. A narrative that never became structured fields is invisible to SaBC.
2. How the note maps to the bulk upload
Treat every custody note as a pre-filled claim row:
- Case start + file sequence goes to UFN (
DDMMYY/NNN) - DSCC notification goes to DSCC number (10 characters)
- Station attended goes to Police Station ID
- Instructing duty scheme goes to Scheme ID
- Duty / own client goes to Duty Solicitor flag
- Offence category goes to Matter Type
- Timed travel, waiting and attendance go to Net profit, travel, waiting (ex VAT)
- Visits in the matter goes to No. of attendances
Capture UFN and DSCC at instruction. Capture station and scheme IDs at the desk. Stamp travel, waiting, disclosure, consultation, and interview as separate start–end blocks. Cost them later at prescribed rates, not a single “total hours” line.
Police station fees aren't graded under the current tables: one fixed fee, one escape threshold. Threshold deep dive: Police Station Escape Fees in 2026.
3. Rejections that start in the note
SaBC validates before costs settle. Gaps in the note become gaps in the file.
Missing or malformed DSCC. Required for INVC. Ten characters. Capture it when the call comes in.
UFN errors. Wrong date part, blank UFN, or a duplicate INVC UFN on the same office account can reject the line, and, on duplicates, the whole monthly submission.
Station / scheme mix-up. Police Station ID drives the INVC fixed fee. Scheme ID is the instructing duty scheme. Record both at the desk.
Unusable times. “Long night: about six hours” doesn't feed net profit, travel, or waiting. Without block times, escape testing and audit defence are guesswork.
4. The monthly-by-20th rhythm
Report concluded matters monthly. Deadline: the 20th of the month after the work finished (unless LAA directs otherwise). So March work goes up by 20 April. Upload early so rejects can be fixed.
Mid-month audit: every finished attendance has UFN, DSCC, station ID, scheme ID, duty flag, and costable time blocks. Then the CMS export or spreadsheet is assembly, not archaeology.
5. Structured note as source of truth
Don't reconstruct SaBC fields from prose. Hold them in the note: identifiers up front, timed stages in the middle, outcome at the end, PDF to the firm file the same day. That's the INVC upload, prepared at the custody desk.
Get the fields down at the station
Custody Note is a Windows and macOS app for structured PACE attendance notes that works offline. Fields for LAA claims sit in the same record as disclosure, advice, interview, and outcome. Free during beta. No credit card. Download the beta.
Disclaimer
Confirm live LAA figures, Fee Codes, and Submit a Bulk Claim guidance on GOV.UK before you bill. Practitioner workflow guidance only. Custody Note isn't endorsed by the Legal Aid Agency.