Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many legal aid-funded cases were started in each local authority area in each of the last six years.

Figures for the number of legal aid claims and the amount of expenditure in each local authority area are available on an annual basis via the Legal Aid Statistics in the June release found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-january-to-march-2017 in the file entitled Legal aid statistics England and Wales provider and area data 2016 to 2017. This geographic breakdown is based on the location of the office of the legal aid provider, not the address of the client. The published figures relate to cases closed as opposed to cases started, and cover almost all legal aid schemes, with the exception of telephone advice and police station work. Data on cases started could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The table at Annex A provides the total number of legal aid claims in each local authority for each financial year from 2011-12 until 2016-17.