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<p>The Lord Chancellor (via the Legal Aid Agency) has a duty to ensure that qualifying
individuals who require assistance at the police station or the magistrates’ courts
and who do not have their own solicitor have access to a Duty Solicitor. The LAA monitors
capacity in each duty scheme area based on the number of solicitor organisations in
that area, as well as the proportion of duty solicitors each of those organisations
engages. There are currently 126 offices contracted to deliver criminal legal aid
services in the Wales area. Additionally, across the 16 areas which make up the Duty
Solicitor scheme in Wales, there are 260 solicitors listed on the rota who are available
to provide advice and assistance. We are confident we have solicitors to fulfil criminal
cases and will make sure we continue to do so.</p><p> </p><p>The Legal Aid Agency
monitors access to public funding according to the location of the solicitor providing
the service. Client location is not reliably captured for the majority of the criminal
legal aid scheme and therefore accurate data based on a defendant’s residence is not
available. Information on expenditure under criminal legal aid by solicitor offices
located in Wales is proactively published, and is available to view at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/720217/legal-aid-statistics-crime-provider-area-data-to-mar-2018.ods"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/720217/legal-aid-statistics-crime-provider-area-data-to-mar-2018.ods</a>.</p>
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