Aug. 05 2025
Source Page: Making a personal injury (whiplash) claimAsked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency; what steps they are taking to ensure that legal aid providers are being remunerated for their work despite any disruption; and when the Agency's online digital service will again be operational.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On Wednesday 23 April, the Department became aware of a cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) online digital services.
To ensure the best chance of reaching as many potentially impacted individuals as possible the Ministry of Justice acted quickly. A notice was published a notice at 08:15 on the 19 May on GOV.UK.
This has been an unprecedented event and every effort is being made to restore services following the criminal attack on our systems. The LAA digital services have been taken offline to negate the threat and prevent further exposure of legal aid providers and users. We have been able to return some systems to internal use, enabling an improved ability to support criminal legal aid applications and payments.
We cannot confirm a specific timescale for full service restoration. In the interim, the LAA will continue to provide updates as soon as they are available and will work closely with representative bodies to ensure any extended or refined contingency measures support providers and their clients to the maximum extent. All updates, including contingency arrangements, are published on the LAA’s dedicated cyber security incident webpage: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/legal-aid-agency-cyber-security-incident.
Our priority remains to maintain access to justice and to ensure legal aid providers can continue to be paid in a timely manner. These enhanced measures are designed to support legal aid providers and their clients and to prevent a significant case backlog while contingency measures are in place.
The data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of the long years of underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the LAA digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the reason for the backlog in scheduling criminal trials in London; what is the currently scheduled trial with the longest delay; what proportion of trials are cancelled because of witness withdrawal; and what action they are taking to reduce the backlog.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog, due in large part to restrictions on courtroom operations put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, and subsequent Criminal Bar Association strike action. In addition, over the last 12-months, we have seen an 18.6% increase in new cases for the London Crown Courts.
Listing is a judicial function. HM Courts & Tribunals Service works in liaison with the judiciary reviewing and prioritising cases when listing trials, in accordance with the sitting day allocation.
In some Crown Court centres across the London region, cases listed for trial in June 2025 were given dates in 2028 and 2029 – with a very small number being listed into the summer of 2029. However, the vast majority of the trial load is listed before the end of 2026.
The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on ineffective trial rates, and the general reasons behind ineffective trials (including witness absence/withdrawal), here: Criminal court statistics quarterly: January to March 2025 - GOV.UK.
This Government has funded a record-high allocation of Crown Court sitting days – 110,000 days this financial year, 4,000 more than the previous Government – to tackle the outstanding caseload. We also commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to undertake an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts to consider the merits of longer-term reform and the efficiency of processes in the criminal courts. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals in more detail before setting out the Government’s full response to the report in the autumn.
As part of our commitment to bearing down on the criminal caseload we have increased magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 months to 12 months’ imprisonment for single triable-either way offences. This will free up capacity in the Crown Court.
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