Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the cost of legal representation and court proceedings does not prevent individuals from accessing justice; and whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of legal aid eligibility thresholds in meeting that objective.

The Government is committed to the provision of legal aid, recognising the vital role that it plays in underpinning genuine access to justice.

We are considering our approach to eligibility across legal aid, including carefully assessing the impact of the recommendations made by the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts

This Government inherited a legal system in crisis, and we are taking steps to invest in legal aid.

We are providing additional funding of up to £34 million a year for criminal legal aid advocates alongside our commitment to match fund a number of criminal barrister pupillages. This is in addition to the investment of £92 million in the solicitor fee schemes.

Alongside this, we have also announced an uplift to immigration and housing legal aid fees. This amounts to a significant investment of £20 million a year once fully implemented – the first major increase since 1996.

Furthermore, we are delivering the largest expansion of civil legal aid in a decade, enabling bereaved families to access non-means tested legal aid at all inquests where a public authority is an interested person.

Beyond legal aid, this Government is also providing over £6 million of grant funding in 2025-2026 to support access to legal support services for people with social welfare problems. We have also announced nearly £20 million of multi-year funding to extend existing grant programmes to September 2026 and providing a new grant from October 2026 to March 2029.