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<p>Access to justice is a fundamental right and last year the government spent £1.6bn
on legal aid.</p><p> </p><p>Legal aid is available in a wide range of cases across
different jurisdictions. This includes crime, family, housing, immigration, and areas
where human rights may have been breached. In most of these areas, applicants have
to satisfy statutory means and merits tests.</p><p> </p><p>The legal aid fund is administered
by the independent Legal Aid Agency, acting according to their statutory duty under
the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Decisions on legal
aid funding are made by the Director of Legal Aid Casework, who acts independently
of Ministers.</p><p> </p><p>We recently published the post-implementation review of
the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO). Alongside this
we published the Legal Support Action Plan which outlines the steps the Government
will be taking over the next two years to enhance the breadth of support to people
experiencing legal problems. This includes delivering £5m in innovation funding to
drive change across the sector, and doubling our funding to support litigants in person
to £3m for each of the next two years.</p>
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