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<p>Between 1 May 2020 to 8 January 2021, a total of 2,343 hardship claims were received,
which includes those made by both litigators and advocates. The LAA made payment in
respect of over 99% of these claims. In light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,
the MoJ brought in Regulation changes which substantially lowered the thresholds at
which a hardship claim can be submitted.</p><p>The LAA keeps the criminal legal aid
market under constant review. We have contacted all providers where the majority of
their income from publicly funded work is dependent upon the Crown Court. The small
minority that reported that they had financial concerns are being monitored on a regular
basis.</p><p>The long-term sustainability of the criminal legal aid market will be
the focus of an independent review, to launch in January 2021. This is the latest
step in the Criminal Legal Aid Review, which has already led to up to £51m per year
in new payments for the sector that was announced in the summer. It forms part of
wider work to ensure criminal defence remains an enduringly attractive career for
practitioners.</p><p>In addition to the support schemes offered by the government,
the LAA has introduced a number of measures to allow providers to be paid more quickly.
All of the measures taken by the LAA are set out on our gov.uk page: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#financial-relief-page"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#financial-relief-page.</a></p><p>Across
the LAA’s civil funding schemes, namely family mediation, legal help, controlled legal
representation, and civil representation, there were 277,829 live cases unbilled as
at the 30 September 2020, which is the latest period for which these figures are available.
The LAA statistics compiled and published on a quarterly basis, as yet the December
2020 figures are not yet finalised.</p><p>The LAA is unable to provide volumes on
unbilled criminal legal aid work within the costs limit. This is because our systems
do not have a ‘final bill indicator’ that would enable automated searches meaning
we would be required to conduct case by case searches. Therefore, the information
requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p>
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