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1700845

registered interest
date	15/04/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 23 November 2023 to Question 2542 on Legal Aid Scheme: Manchester and Middlesbrough, what progress has been made on preparing the evaluation report into the early legal advice pilot scheme; and when he plans to publish that report.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	21609
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>We plan to publish all Early Legal Advice Pilot (ELAP) outputs in accordance with Government Social Research protocols very soon.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 23/04/2024 14:14:34 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1692783

registered interest
date	29/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that legal aid remains accessible.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	16285
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2024 answer text <p>Access to justice is a fundamental right, and in 2022/23 we spent £1.86 billion on legal aid: £926 million on civil, £873 million on crime, and £56 million through central funds (central funds provide funding for, amongst other things, Defence Costs Orders, which are made in respect of non legally-aided defendants who are acquitted, and independent cross examination of vulnerable witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings).</p><p>The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Means Test Review consultation exercise in May 2023, which sets out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-test arrangements.</p><p>Our changes will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million, with 3.5 million more people eligible for criminal legal aid at the magistrates’ court.</p><p>We have also injected up to £10 million a year into housing legal aid through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS). HLPAS provides early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits problems for anyone facing the loss of their home.</p><p>In 2023, we broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid. Special Guardianship Orders in private law proceedings were also brought into the scope of legal aid. This represented an injection of £13 million a year.</p><p>We will shortly be consulting on expanding the provision of legal aid at inquests related to major incidents where the Independent Public Advocate is appointed or in the aftermath of terrorist incidents. If implemented, this would mean that no family involved in such cases in future would face an inquest without proper legal representation.</p><p>To support and strengthen the criminal legal aid sector, in responding to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review, we uplifted most criminal legal aid fee schemes by 15% in 2022. We are also consulting on reforms to the police station fee scheme and the Youth Court fee scheme, for which we have allocated an extra £21 million per year. These changes increase spend by up to £141 million a year - taking expected criminal legal aid spend to £1.2 billion per year. The additional funding into the system will help contribute towards the sustainability of the market and help ensure legal aid is accessible for the future.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 16425 question first answered 08/03/2024 14:37:18 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett

1692787

registered interest
date	29/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that legal aid remains accessible.
tabling member constituency	Warrington North
tabling member printed	Charlotte Nichols
uin	16425
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2024 answer text <p>Access to justice is a fundamental right, and in 2022/23 we spent £1.86 billion on legal aid: £926 million on civil, £873 million on crime, and £56 million through central funds (central funds provide funding for, amongst other things, Defence Costs Orders, which are made in respect of non legally-aided defendants who are acquitted, and independent cross examination of vulnerable witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings).</p><p>The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Means Test Review consultation exercise in May 2023, which sets out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-test arrangements.</p><p>Our changes will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million, with 3.5 million more people eligible for criminal legal aid at the magistrates’ court.</p><p>We have also injected up to £10 million a year into housing legal aid through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS). HLPAS provides early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits problems for anyone facing the loss of their home.</p><p>In 2023, we broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid. Special Guardianship Orders in private law proceedings were also brought into the scope of legal aid. This represented an injection of £13 million a year.</p><p>We will shortly be consulting on expanding the provision of legal aid at inquests related to major incidents where the Independent Public Advocate is appointed or in the aftermath of terrorist incidents. If implemented, this would mean that no family involved in such cases in future would face an inquest without proper legal representation.</p><p>To support and strengthen the criminal legal aid sector, in responding to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review, we uplifted most criminal legal aid fee schemes by 15% in 2022. We are also consulting on reforms to the police station fee scheme and the Youth Court fee scheme, for which we have allocated an extra £21 million per year. These changes increase spend by up to £141 million a year - taking expected criminal legal aid spend to £1.2 billion per year. The additional funding into the system will help contribute towards the sustainability of the market and help ensure legal aid is accessible for the future.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 16285 question first answered 08/03/2024 14:37:18 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4799 label Biography information for Charlotte Nichols

1690471

registered interest
date	20/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the judgment in the case of the Law Society of England and Wales v The Lord Chancellor of 31 January 2024.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	14863
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2024 answer text <p>While the claimants in the case being referred to were successful on specific narrow grounds, the majority of their claims were rejected by the Court. We are carefully considering the judgment and will set out further detail on our response in due course.</p><p>We recently announced a consultation that would lead to an additional £21 million being invested in the criminal legal aid solicitor profession, bringing the overall increase from 9% to 11%. We expect our existing reforms to increase spending on criminal legal aid by up to £141 million a year.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 23/02/2024 11:37:55 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1670263

registered interest
date	15/11/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will include scope and fees in the review of civil legal aid.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	2143
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2023 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking a Review of Civil Legal Aid to identify evidence-based options for moving to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable system for legal aid providers and the people who rely on legal aid.</p><p> </p><p>The Review will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety: how services are procured, how well the current system works for users, how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system, and whether the civil legal aid system offers a financially viable business option for legal aid providers. It will also consider the overall fee structures of the civil legal aid system. The scope of legal aid is not within the Review’s remit.</p><p> </p><p>In the interim, we are continuing to make improvements across the sector to ensure legal aid is available to those who need it. From 1 August 2023, the scope of legal aid was expanded, enabling people facing the loss of their home to receive early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits issues as well as representation in court. This means an increase in funding of up to £10m each year.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, we recently laid secondary legislation to bring Special Guardianship Orders brought in private law proceedings within scope of legal aid, injecting a further £13m into family legal aid per year. We have also broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid, making it easier for victims to evidence their claims. This will deliver on our commitments to support victims of domestic abuse and allow special guardians to access legal aid.</p><p> </p><p>Eligibility for legal aid was considered in the Legal Aid Means Test Review. The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Review’s consultation exercise in May 2023, which set out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-testing arrangements. When implemented, we estimate that spending on legal aid will rise by circa £25 million. This will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 2144 question first answered 20/11/2023 16:00:49 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1670264

registered interest
date	15/11/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of his decision not to include (a) eligibility and (b) fees as part of his review of civil legal aid.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	2144
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2023 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking a Review of Civil Legal Aid to identify evidence-based options for moving to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable system for legal aid providers and the people who rely on legal aid.</p><p> </p><p>The Review will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety: how services are procured, how well the current system works for users, how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system, and whether the civil legal aid system offers a financially viable business option for legal aid providers. It will also consider the overall fee structures of the civil legal aid system. The scope of legal aid is not within the Review’s remit.</p><p> </p><p>In the interim, we are continuing to make improvements across the sector to ensure legal aid is available to those who need it. From 1 August 2023, the scope of legal aid was expanded, enabling people facing the loss of their home to receive early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits issues as well as representation in court. This means an increase in funding of up to £10m each year.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, we recently laid secondary legislation to bring Special Guardianship Orders brought in private law proceedings within scope of legal aid, injecting a further £13m into family legal aid per year. We have also broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid, making it easier for victims to evidence their claims. This will deliver on our commitments to support victims of domestic abuse and allow special guardians to access legal aid.</p><p> </p><p>Eligibility for legal aid was considered in the Legal Aid Means Test Review. The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Review’s consultation exercise in May 2023, which set out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-testing arrangements. When implemented, we estimate that spending on legal aid will rise by circa £25 million. This will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 2143 question first answered 20/11/2023 16:00:49 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1669584

registered interest
date	13/11/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made recent representations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the level of legal aid funding.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	1542
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/11/2023 answer text <p>The Department works closely with HM Treasury to support the justice system, and ministers and officials have regular discussions with Treasury colleagues on a range of issues including legal aid. We make representations for funding in the usual way and continue to look at how to use departmental funding in a fiscally responsible way.</p><p>Last year we spent just under £2 billion on legal aid – approximately £1bn on civil and just over £900m on criminal.</p><p>In response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) we introduced a 15% uplift across most fee schemes, increasing expenditure by up to £141 million a year and taking expected annual criminal legal aid spend to £1.2 billion per year.</p><p>On 25 May 2023 we published our response to the consultation on the Means Test Review. When implemented, we estimate that spending on legal aid will rise by circa £25 million.</p><p>We are also investing a further £13m into family legal aid per year, and a further £10m per year into housing legal aid through the new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service, which launched on 01 August.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 21/11/2023 13:44:52 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1669255

registered interest
date	10/11/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the (a) annual cost to the public purse for the Legal Aid Agency to process applications for exceptional case funding and (b) value of exceptional case funding claims that have been (i) granted and (ii) denied in the each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	1342
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/11/2023 answer text <p>The information requested is not held centrally.</p><p> </p><p>The unit cost of processing an application is not specifically tracked or recorded by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), nor is the administrative spend on Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) recorded separately to general legal aid administrative spend. Details about volumes of ECF applications, broken down by category, for every year since 2013 can be found in legal aid statistics published by the Ministry of Justice [see tables 8.1 and 8.2]: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-april-to-june-2023" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-april-to-june-2023</a></p><p> </p><p>Legal Aid Expenditure is tracked by the form of service it is provided under i.e. whether it is advice and assistance provided under Legal Help or Controlled Legal Representation or representation in proceedings provided as Civil Representation. ECF can be provided under either form of service. These costs are paid via a number of different billing platforms, not all of which have the functionality to isolate ECF costs from other civil costs. It is therefore not possible to disaggregate the value of ECF cases from the value of other civil in-scope cases. Expenditure under the ECF scheme therefore forms part of the overall civil legal aid expenditure as detailed in tables 5.3 and 6.5 of the published legal aid statistics <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-april-to-june-2023" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-april-to-june-2023</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The LAA would not hold any information regarding the value of claims where it has refused an application for funding under ECF. The value of the claim would only be apparent at the conclusion of the case after a bill was submitted to the Legal Aid Agency. If legal aid under ECF is not granted, no bill is submitted.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 15/11/2023 14:21:11 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1669256

registered interest
date	10/11/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the (a) annual saving to the Legal Aid fund of removing passporting through the means test for those earning more than £500 per month who are in receipt of Universal Credit and (b) additional annual cost to the Legal Aid fund of passporting homeowners in receipt of Universal Credit through the capital assessment part of the means test.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	1343
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/11/2023 answer text <p>The new legal aid means test will comprise a wide range of closely inter-related policy elements to be delivered simultaneously. This includes introducing a £500 monthly earnings threshold for UC recipients who are currently passported through the income assessment for civil legal aid, as well as limiting the passporting of UC recipients through the civil legal aid capital assessment solely to those who are non-home owners. Taking all these policy elements into account, will lead to additional spending in steady state for civil legal aid of up to £24 million per year. Whilst not all policy elements apply equally to the criminal legal aid scheme, the comparable impact on annual steady state spending for criminal legal aid rises up to £5 million. These ranges assume that all recipients of legacy welfare benefits have been transitioned onto UC. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/legal-aid-means-test-review" target="_blank">Legal Aid Means Test Review - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 16/11/2023 15:41:12 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1669257

registered interest
date	10/11/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the annual cost for the Legal Aid Agency to process escape fee claims; what proportion of escape fee claims are rejected; and what the value to the Legal Aid fund of rejected escape fee claims was in each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	1344
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/11/2023 answer text <p>The term ‘escape fee claim’ is used in connection with various types of legal aid work which is funded by way of fixed or standard fee, where the legislation in place allows a claim at hourly rates to be made in circumstances where the actual cost of work done escapes a set threshold. There are various types of escape fee claims. In this context we have interpreted your request as pertaining to civil Controlled Work claims billed using an EC-CLAIM1 and to crime claims billed used a CRM-18 or CRM-18a as these are explicitly described as being escape fee claims.</p><p> </p><p>Information relating to the annual cost of processing escape fee claims is not centrally held. The unit cost of processing an escape fee claim is not specifically tracked or recorded by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), nor is the administrative spend on processing escape fee claims recorded separately to general legal aid administrative spend. Staff engaged in the assessment and payment of escape fee claims may not exclusively be engaged in these functions and as such it is not possible to calculate an estimate of costs based on staff salaries.</p><p> </p><p>For civil escape fee claims the proportion of escape fee claims that were rejected in each of the last three years is set out in the table below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>2022</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>16.72%</p></td><td><p>15.47%</p></td><td><p>13.2%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Please note that the above figures are based on Management Information manually collated by the LAA. Although every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete, it is important to note that the data has been extracted from data sets which require a degree of manual input. As a consequence, the data can change over time and care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when data is used.</p><p>No criminal escape fee claims have been rejected in the last three years.</p><p>Information relating to the value to the legal aid fund of rejected claims is not centrally held. Claims are rejected in instances where there is some inaccuracy in the bill or where information or supporting documents are required. Claims are returned to the legal aid provider who will make the necessary amendments or supply any additional information so that these may be re-submitted to the LAA for payment.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 15/11/2023 14:22:59 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham