Legal Aid Agency Cyber-security Incident: Temporary Operational Changes

Sarah Sackman Excerpts

Thursday 26th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Sarah Sackman)]

In my statement to the House of 19 May 2025 on the cyber-security incident affecting the Legal Aid Agency’s digital platforms, I said that I would provide a written update to the House in due course.

I therefore want to inform the House that the Ministry of Justice has introduced secondary legislation to make temporary operational changes until these contingency arrangements are no longer needed.

Contingency to date

As I outlined in my statement on 19 May, we have already put in place a number of contingency measures following the incident. In particular, the LAA has set up an incident webpage, with contingencies guidance and frequently asked questions, this is updated daily. The LAA has also set up a telephone helpline for members of the public who are concerned they may have been affected by the data breach.

In terms of contingency measures, the LAA has:

set up an average payment scheme for legal aid providers for civil legal aid cases;

resumed payments to providers on criminal legal aid cases;

put in place processes for urgent civil legal aid application approvals;

resumed processing criminal legal aid applications for the Crown Court; and

confirmed that criminal legal aid applications made in this time will be backdated.

Why is this statutory instrument necessary?

We now need to go further by making some operational changes to ensure the LAA’s business continuity because some LAA digital services, especially those covering civil legal aid, remain offline. Therefore, earlier today, I laid before Parliament “The Criminal and Civil Legal Aid (Amendment) Regulations 2025” (the Statutory Instrument (SI) and accompanying explanatory memorandum are available at legislation.gov.uk). These regulations come into force on 27 June 2025. This SI makes amendments to ensure business continuity for a temporary period until these changes are no longer required.

The intention is to make operational changes to ensure LAA caseworkers can continue to process high-profile, and contentious matters. To enable this, delegations to providers will be extended to carry out certain functions. While this delegation does not require legislation, the SI makes necessary changes to regulations to enable providers to undertake certain work during this period.

These legislative amendments together with some delegation to providers, enables business continuity and ensures the Lord Chancellor is fulfilling her obligations under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to make legal aid services available in accordance with the Act. It ensures continuity for both legal aid providers and clients, and maintains access to justice. The measures are designed to ensure these important obligations are met and maintain system stability until digital operations can be restored. In doing so, we are mindful of our responsibility to the taxpayer: proportionate cost controls and assurance mechanisms are in place to manage financial and fraud risks.

The SI will, for a temporary period:

waive civil legal aid income and capital contributions for new and existing cases;

remove prohibitions on delegation of powers to enable the Director of Legal Aid Casework (DLAC) to delegate some additional decisions regarding civil legal aid determinations to legal aid providers; and

make some minor and consequential amendments relating to criminal legal aid determinations which supports other measures being taken as business continuity arrangements.

The above changes contained in the SI will be complemented by changes to the legal aid tables of delegated authorities, issued by the DLAC through a non-legislative process.

Criminal legal aid

For criminal legal aid, the practical effect of this package, that is, the SI and the consequential changes, will be to delegate to providers various DLAC functions, in particular:

the power to issue representation orders, and complete related means and merits assessments, for some criminal proceedings in the magistrates’ court where the client is passported, unemployed or under 18; and

the power to withdraw representation orders for the magistrates’ court under certain circumstances.

In criminal legal aid, there is also a provision to ensure providers will be paid for any work conducted on behalf of new clients where they have not been able to properly submit an application to the LAA since some systems first went down on 7 May 2025.

Civil legal aid

For civil legal aid, the effect of the SI package will be to waive both income and capital contributions from clients, and remove the prohibition on delegation to providers of certain functions. The DLAC will then delegate to civil legal aid providers the ability to:

amend substantive determinations for Licensed Work up to a certain limit;

make determinations in respect of certain proceedings which are related to those for which a determination has already been made by the LAA; and

withdraw non-contentious determinations on legal aid funding where: the services made available by the determination have been provided; the proceedings to which the determination relates have been concluded; the individual consents; or the individual has died.

For licensed work, where legal representation in court is needed, the LAA, acting under delegated powers, usually determines eligibility and is also typically responsible for taking decisions in relation to the potential amendment of the determination as well as its possible withdrawal, subject to the circumstances of the case.

In relation to civil legal aid contributions, there is a transitional provision which will act as a deterrent to individuals who already have civil legal aid, from stopping instructions to their solicitors to seek a refund of any contributions already paid, then making a new application for the same case under the more favourable terms provided for under this SI.

The DLAC will also be required to withdraw, rather than revoke, any emergency representation determination where the individual does not subsequently pass the means test.

The distinction between revocation and withdrawal is broadly as follows: when the LAA revokes the funding certificate, any legal aid funds paid to the provider for work undertaken in the case would be reclaimed from the individual; in contrast, when the LAA withdraws the funding certificate, legal aid funding ceases from that point and the individual faces no liability to the LAA for the legal aid costs incurred in the case.

I want to reassure the House that we are continuing to work hard on stabilising the LAA’s systems, and we have put in place these contingency plans, and those set out in the LAA’s published guidance, which is regularly updated, to ensure that those most in need of legal aid can continue to access the help that they need. We have engaged with legal aid representative bodies on these contingency plans and will continue to do so.

[HCWS743]