Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of free or pro-bono legal support for leaseholders involved in disputes with property management agents or freeholders.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are a range of options available for leaseholders involved in disputes with property management agents or freeholders. Advice organisations, such as Citizens Advice and Shelter, may be able to provide advice or signpost to further support, and leaseholders may be able to get support from organisations that specialise in leasehold issues, such as the Leasehold Advisory Service. Alternatively, ombudsman services may be able to provide support with resolving a dispute. Leaseholders may choose to seek pro bono advice via organisations such as LawWorks or Advocate.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review the cost of leasehold tribunal applications.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Most leasehold applications currently attract an application fee of £114. Fees for leasehold applications to the First-tier Tribunal of the Property Chamber are set at levels which recover only part of the cost of the service.
The Government is committed to protecting leaseholders from disproportionate litigation costs. On 26 September 2025, the Government concluded a consultation with proposals to establish exemptions for landlords from seeking tribunal approval to recover litigation costs, permitting temporary suspension of this requirement for specified landlords, and defining the categories of cases in which leaseholders may apply to recover their own litigation costs. The Government is currently analysing responses and will publish the outcome in due course.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many School Attendance Order (a) prosecutions and (b) fines there were under section 443 of the Education Act 1996 in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The volume of defendants prosecuted and fined for offences under 443 of the Education Act 1996 from 2015 - 2024 (January to September) is provided in the attached table 1.
Note that that this is an additional breakdown of statistics published by the Ministry of Justice on volumes of criminal proceedings.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the number of people eligible for housing legal aid.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Legal aid is available for possession, evictions, homelessness and housing disrepair claims (when there is a serious risk of illness or injury) subject to a financial means test. Anyone in this situation should contact the Civil Legal Aid telephone helpline or use the ‘Find a legal advisor’ tool on Gov.UK.
Legal aid is available for people facing the loss of their home through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS) and the Civil Legal Aid Helpline. HLPAS provides free early legal advice, on a non-means tested basis, on housing, debt, welfare benefits and council tax reduction scheme problems from the moment someone receives notice possession is being sought or to those facing eviction. HLPAS also offers free representation at court from a duty solicitor on the day of their court hearing.
In 2023-24 over 28,000 legal advice cases were started and over 5,000 court cases were given representation, in addition to over 29,000 people getting advice from the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service.
The Government is currently consulting on uplifts to legal aid fees for housing. Subject to consultation, an additional £20 million will be invested into the legal aid sector every year: this would increase overall spend by 24% for housing.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has had discussions with stakeholders on the potential merits of in-sourcing court language services.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Through the language services stakeholder forum, the Ministry of Justice has regular conversations with stakeholders and was made aware of their view of outsourcing from these conversations. This view was used to clarify the options explored within the delivery model assessment and resulted in the consideration of insourcing, and hybrid options of insource and outsource.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of restoring the scope of cases covered by legal aid to those provided for prior to the Legal Aid, Sentencing, and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
Legal aid is a vital part of the justice system. It underpins our plans to build a justice system that works for victims, supports access to justice, and ultimately upholds the rule of law.
The Government is committed to ensuring an effective and sustainable legal aid system and is keen to work closely with practitioners and their representative bodies on this. We are carefully considering options for reform following evidence gathered on the health of the system, including, for example, information gathered as part of the Review of Civil Legal Aid.
To support housing legal aid work, we are providing £1.5 million in grant funding for the recruitment of trainee housing solicitors until November 2025.
We also recognise the importance of the broader legal support system, beyond legal aid, in helping people to access justice. We are providing over £10 million of grant funding, up to March 2025, to identify what works best in the delivery and provision of legal support for people with social welfare legal problems. This includes the ‘Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support’ grant, which supports the work of 59 organisations to sustain and improve access to early legal support and support at court.
It also includes the ‘Online Support and Advice’ Grant, which ensures the provision of online support across a range of civil, family and tribunal problems.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits providing grants to legal aid providers to help increase the accessibility of legal aid.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
Legal aid is a vital part of the justice system. It underpins our plans to build a justice system that works for victims, supports access to justice, and ultimately upholds the rule of law.
The Government is committed to ensuring an effective and sustainable legal aid system and is keen to work closely with practitioners and their representative bodies on this. We are carefully considering options for reform following evidence gathered on the health of the system, including, for example, information gathered as part of the Review of Civil Legal Aid.
To support housing legal aid work, we are providing £1.5 million in grant funding for the recruitment of trainee housing solicitors until November 2025.
We also recognise the importance of the broader legal support system, beyond legal aid, in helping people to access justice. We are providing over £10 million of grant funding, up to March 2025, to identify what works best in the delivery and provision of legal support for people with social welfare legal problems. This includes the ‘Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support’ grant, which supports the work of 59 organisations to sustain and improve access to early legal support and support at court.
It also includes the ‘Online Support and Advice’ Grant, which ensures the provision of online support across a range of civil, family and tribunal problems.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to take steps to increase legal aid fee rates.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
Legal aid is a vital part of the justice system. It underpins our plans to build a justice system that works for victims, supports access to justice, and ultimately upholds the rule of law.
The Government is committed to ensuring an effective and sustainable legal aid system and is keen to work closely with practitioners and their representative bodies on this. We are carefully considering options for reform following evidence gathered on the health of the system, including, for example, information gathered as part of the Review of Civil Legal Aid.
To support housing legal aid work, we are providing £1.5 million in grant funding for the recruitment of trainee housing solicitors until November 2025.
We also recognise the importance of the broader legal support system, beyond legal aid, in helping people to access justice. We are providing over £10 million of grant funding, up to March 2025, to identify what works best in the delivery and provision of legal support for people with social welfare legal problems. This includes the ‘Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support’ grant, which supports the work of 59 organisations to sustain and improve access to early legal support and support at court.
It also includes the ‘Online Support and Advice’ Grant, which ensures the provision of online support across a range of civil, family and tribunal problems.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the level of legal aid in the context of recent increases in the cost of living.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
Legal aid is a vital part of the justice system. It underpins our plans to build a justice system that works for victims, supports access to justice, and ultimately upholds the rule of law.
We are keen to understand the different ways the legal aid system can be improved to ensure each part works to the best of its ability. We will be carefully considering our options on the way forward including the evidence gathered over the past year on civil legal aid.
This Government understands the challenges related to legal aid eligibility and we are assessing the appropriate next steps. We are also seeking to implement changes to the means test that will extend the range of payments which may or must be disregarded from the legal aid means assessment.