Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors held a (a) civil and (b) criminal legal aid contract as of 1 September 2021.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
There are currently 1,080 Providers who hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,401 Providers who hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 17th September 2021. Please note for the figures provided that firms may have more than one office.
The Legal Aid Agency frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision around the country and moves quickly to ensure provision where gaps may appear.
Operational system data on the volume of providers holding legal aid contracts at any given time is subject to change due to the internal management and updating of contract schedules, which may impact both real time and historic data.
Criminal legal aid providers (firms) and offices in each year, from September 2012 to September 2021:
| Apr-12 | Sep-12 | Apr-13 | Apr-14 | Apr-15 | Apr-16 | Apr-17 | Apr-18 | Apr-19 | Apr-20 | Apr-21 | Sep-21 |
Firms | 1,652 | 1621 | 1,595 | 1,513 | 1,425 | 1,386 | 1,310 | 1,266 | 1,194 | 1,154 | 1,090 | 1,080 |
Offices | 2,318 | 2292 | 2,258 | 2,142 | 2,040 | 1,969 | 1,981 | 1,913 | 1,802 | 1,717 | 1,589 | 1,565 |
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors held a (a) civil and (b) criminal legal aid contract as of 1 April 2021.
Answered by Alex Chalk
Please note for the figures provided that firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,090 Providers who hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,439 Providers who hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 7th April 2021.
The Legal Aid Agency frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision around the country and moves quickly to ensure provision where gaps may appear.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors held a (a) civil and (b) criminal legal aid contract on (i) 1 March 2021 and (ii) 1 March 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk
Please note for the figures provided, firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,104 firms who hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,445 firms who hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 8 March 2021.
As at March 2020 there were 1,150 firms holding a Criminal Legal Aid Contract, and 1,500 firms holding a Civil Legal Aid Contract.
The Legal Aid Agency frequently reviews market capacity to ensure there is adequate provision around the country and moves quickly to ensure provision where gaps may appear.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a list of (a) criminal legal aid providers and (b) civil legal aid providers as of March 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk
A list of current contracted legal aid providers is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/directory-of-legal-aid-providers.
As at March 2020, there were 1,500 firms who held a civil legal aid contract, and 1,150 who held a criminal legal aid contract.
The details of those providers are attached.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors held a (a) civil and (b) criminal legal aid contract as at 1 February 2021.
Answered by Alex Chalk
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,109 firms who hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,447 firms who hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 1 February 2021.
The Legal Aid Agency frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision around the country and moves quickly to ensure provision where gaps may appear.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hardship payments have been claimed by legal aid providers to date; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of those payments in supporting advocates.
Answered by Alex Chalk
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.
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.
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.
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: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#financial-relief-page.
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.
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.