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<p><strong>236582</strong>: The Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) complaints procedure is published
at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/legal-aid-agency/about/complaints-procedure"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/legal-aid-agency/about/complaints-procedure</a>.
Complaints may be made by an applicant for funding, their legal representative, their
MP, or anyone else involved in the case. Complaints are counted separately as they
pass through the stages of the process. Data for the most recent five completed financial
years is shown below.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Financial Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Number
responded to</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>3,887</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>2,785</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>3,446</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>3,727</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>3,234</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>236585,236586
& 236587:</strong> The Legal Aid Agency measures and monitors its performance
via a number of key performance indicators and corporate targets. For the processing
of civil legal aid applications, this target has changed within the last five years.
It is therefore not possible to answer these questions in precisely the format requested.</p><p>
</p><p>The LAA remained within the target for each reporting month between April 2014
and December 2018. Details of how these targets changed within the requested time
period, and a breakdown by the categories of law enquired about, are included within
the table below.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Financial year</p></td><td><p>Target
- % within working days</p></td><td><p>Proportion out of target - Housing</p></td><td><p>Proportion
out of target - Discrimination</p></td><td><p>Annual performance across all civil
legal aid applications</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014-15</p></td><td><p>85%</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td><td><p>0%</p></td><td><p>Target
met</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015-16</p></td><td><p>85%</p></td><td><p>8%</p></td><td><p>25%</p></td><td><p>Target
met</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>85%</p></td><td><p>4%</p></td><td><p>17%</p></td><td><p>Target
met</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18</p></td><td><p>90%</p></td><td><p>4%</p></td><td><p>23%</p></td><td><p>Target
met</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19*</p></td><td><p>80%</p></td><td><p>13%</p></td><td><p>56%</p></td><td><p>Target
met</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>*(to Dec 2018)</p><p> </p><p>The target for 2018-19
(onwards) also includes the amount of time taken by providers, as well as LAA caseworkers,
thus referring to an “end-to-end” process. This is reflected in the figures for this
financial year shown above. Previous targets referred to LAA caseworker time-taken
only.</p><p> </p><p><strong>236588:</strong> the LAA’s published statistics are separated
into quarters for each financial year. The most recent period available is July-September
2018. During that time, four applications for a legal aid certificate in the Discrimination
category of law were received. Of those, one application was referred to the Exceptional
and Complex Case Team for a determination.</p><p> </p><p><strong>236589, 236590, 236591,
236592:</strong> Case volumes for the LAA are published on a quarterly basis at <a
href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics</a>.
These show the number of matters started at the ‘Legal Help’ stage, where the application
process is devolved to the provider, and applications and grants for a legal aid certificate,
where this is determined by the LAA. Therefore it is not possible to comment on the
grant rate of Legal Help matters as only successful applications are referred to us.</p><p>Table
6.1 of the aforesaid published statistics shows the number of applications for a legal
aid certificate which were made in each period, and of those the volume which were
granted. Please note that an application may not proceed to being granted for a variety
of reasons, for example being withdrawn, abandoned, rejected for administrative reasons,
or refused where the relevant funding criteria were not met.</p><p> </p><p>Table 5.1
of the published statistics show the number of matters opened at the Legal Help level
by category of law during the period enquired about.</p><p> </p>
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