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<table><tbody><tr><td><p>The LAA does not hold data on Not For Profit (NfP) organisation
closures, only whether they hold a contract to deliver legal aid services. Under the
LAA’s contracting regime, an organisation may be contracted to deliver services from
one or multiple offices. Contracts may be ended by either party; providers may choose
to withdraw from the whole contract, an office or a category of law or the LAA may
take action should a provider breach its contract obligations. All contracted providers
make their own commercial decisions and withdrawal from a legal aid contract may not
be as a result of a closure. For example, NfPs may withdraw from a legal aid contract
but continue to operate reliant on other funding, or may choose to consolidate offices
but continue to deliver larger volumes of work across a wider area. The table below
shows the number of NfP providers (at office level) holding a legal aid contract in
any given year. While NfP organisations play a role in helping people access justice,
they are not the sole means. We have 1,439 organisations delivering legal aid contracts
across the England and Wales – 1,356 of which are with legal firms rather than the
not-for-profit sector which includes law centres. We spent £1.6 billion on legal aid
last year and in addition to the Civil Legal Advice Telephone service, we are investing
£5m in innovative technologies to help people access legal support wherever they are.
<table><tbody><tr><td colspan="11"><p>Financial Year</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010/11</p></td><td><p>2011/12</p></td><td><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>2019
September</p></td><td><p>2019/20</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>596</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>495</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>456</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>395</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>397</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>320</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>311</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>295</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>285</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>233</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>213</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table></p></td></tr></tbody></table>
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