Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 55645 on Legal Aid Scheme: Rural Areas, what data her Department holds on the average (a) travel distance and (b) waiting time for residents to access in-person legal aid services in (i) rural and (ii) urban areas.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Citizens in England and Wales should be able to access legal aid services regardless of where they live, provided they meet the relevant eligibility criteria. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services, and it monitors the numbers of providers in each procurement area and across all categories of law. It takes operational action where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise and works closely with the Ministry of Justice on policy solutions concerning the supply of legal aid.
Greater use of technology can enable people to access a wide range of specialist advice from across the country. For example, legal advice for education, discrimination, housing and debt issues is always available through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service, wherever you are in England and Wales.
As part of the £24 million increase for criminal solicitors implemented in 2024, the Ministry of Justice is paying for travel time for solicitors who work or commute to work in a small number of scheme areas with fewer than two legal aid providers, as well as the Isle of Wight.
The Department continues to monitor office locations and travel distances between providers and clients as part of its assessment of geographical coverage.
The Government’s grant funding of over £6 million going to 60 frontline organisations in 2025/26 funds charitable, benevolent or philanthropic organisations delivering legal support and information services in relation to a range of social welfare legal problems. Organisations include some local Citizen’s Advice centres, Shelter and Law Centres, who provide legal support services across England and Wales, including in rural areas, with some organisations also providing outreach services. Online services delivered by organisations like AdviceNow also provide support and information to individuals in relation to civil, family and tribunal matters regardless of location. The Advicenow website includes information about how to get legal aid in relevant areas of law and signposts users to further information and support.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 55645 on Legal Aid Scheme: Rural Areas, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the legal aid procurement model on improving access to legal aid services in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Citizens in England and Wales should be able to access legal aid services regardless of where they live, provided they meet the relevant eligibility criteria. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services, and it monitors the numbers of providers in each procurement area and across all categories of law. It takes operational action where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise and works closely with the Ministry of Justice on policy solutions concerning the supply of legal aid.
Greater use of technology can enable people to access a wide range of specialist advice from across the country. For example, legal advice for education, discrimination, housing and debt issues is always available through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service, wherever you are in England and Wales.
As part of the £24 million increase for criminal solicitors implemented in 2024, the Ministry of Justice is paying for travel time for solicitors who work or commute to work in a small number of scheme areas with fewer than two legal aid providers, as well as the Isle of Wight.
The Department continues to monitor office locations and travel distances between providers and clients as part of its assessment of geographical coverage.
The Government’s grant funding of over £6 million going to 60 frontline organisations in 2025/26 funds charitable, benevolent or philanthropic organisations delivering legal support and information services in relation to a range of social welfare legal problems. Organisations include some local Citizen’s Advice centres, Shelter and Law Centres, who provide legal support services across England and Wales, including in rural areas, with some organisations also providing outreach services. Online services delivered by organisations like AdviceNow also provide support and information to individuals in relation to civil, family and tribunal matters regardless of location. The Advicenow website includes information about how to get legal aid in relevant areas of law and signposts users to further information and support.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 55645 on Legal Aid Scheme: Rural Areas, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the £6 million legal support grant funding reaches legal aid deserts in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Citizens in England and Wales should be able to access legal aid services regardless of where they live, provided they meet the relevant eligibility criteria. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services, and it monitors the numbers of providers in each procurement area and across all categories of law. It takes operational action where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise and works closely with the Ministry of Justice on policy solutions concerning the supply of legal aid.
Greater use of technology can enable people to access a wide range of specialist advice from across the country. For example, legal advice for education, discrimination, housing and debt issues is always available through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service, wherever you are in England and Wales.
As part of the £24 million increase for criminal solicitors implemented in 2024, the Ministry of Justice is paying for travel time for solicitors who work or commute to work in a small number of scheme areas with fewer than two legal aid providers, as well as the Isle of Wight.
The Department continues to monitor office locations and travel distances between providers and clients as part of its assessment of geographical coverage.
The Government’s grant funding of over £6 million going to 60 frontline organisations in 2025/26 funds charitable, benevolent or philanthropic organisations delivering legal support and information services in relation to a range of social welfare legal problems. Organisations include some local Citizen’s Advice centres, Shelter and Law Centres, who provide legal support services across England and Wales, including in rural areas, with some organisations also providing outreach services. Online services delivered by organisations like AdviceNow also provide support and information to individuals in relation to civil, family and tribunal matters regardless of location. The Advicenow website includes information about how to get legal aid in relevant areas of law and signposts users to further information and support.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has she made of access to legal aid services in rural constituencies.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It is vital that those who need legal aid – some of the most vulnerable people in our society – can access it wherever they live in the UK.
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services in England and Wales. The LAA monitors the numbers of providers in each procurement area and across all categories of law. It takes operational action to respond to market pressures that may arise and works closely with the Ministry of Justice on policy solutions concerning the supply of legal aid. Procurement for legal aid contracts is now operated under the ‘always on principle’ so that the procurement remains open during the life of the contract. This new approach enables new entrants to apply for a contract at any time and for existing providers to expand their services. It is a more flexible approach removing hard deadlines and maximising the available supply of services so that we can adapt quickly and ensure everyone has access to legal aid.
The Ministry of Justice has recently concluded a consultation on uplifts to housing & debt and immigration & asylum legal aid fees (which once fully implemented, would inject an additional £20 million into the sector each year), and is currently consulting on funding of up to £92 million more a year for criminal legal aid solicitors.
The Department is also providing over £6 million of legal support grant funding up to March 2026 to deliver free legal support and advice for people with social welfare legal problems. This includes the ‘Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support’ grant, which supports the work of organisations across England and Wales to sustain and improve access to early legal support and advice, including support at court. It also includes the ‘Online Support and AdviceGrant’, which ensures the provision of online support across a range of civil, family and tribunal problems via one service (Advicenow). The Advicenow website includes information about how to get legal aid in relevant areas of law and signposts users to further information and support.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Extended Determinate Sentences have been handed down in England and Wales in the last 10 years (a) in total (b) by specific offense.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of offenders in England and Wales found guilty and given an extended determinate sentence, up to December 2024.
This data is available by offence from the Outcomes by Offence Data tool accessed from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2024.