Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has been made of levels of gaps in access to legal aid for family law cases.

This Government recognises the vital role that legal aid plays in supporting individuals in family proceedings. In 2024/25, the Government spent £854 million on the provision of family legal aid (£196 million on private family, and £658 milion on public family), and we continue to keep family legal aid policy under review.

In terms of geographic accessibility, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) commissions family legal aid services across geographic areas called procurement areas, and the LAA monitors the number of providers holding family legal aid contracts across England and Wales. The LAA’s standard is that there is a minimum of five family legal aid providers per procurement area. All procurement areas for family legal aid have legal aid coverage, although nine procurement areas currently have fewer than the commissioning standard of five providers.

These levels have remained stable since contracts commenced in September 2024, with no evidence that access to justice has been adversely affected, as individuals can access face to face services in neighbouring procurement areas or via remote means. Providers frequently operate across multiple areas and deliver services through a combination of local provision, outreach and remote advice. Where provision is lower than the commissioning standard, targeted engagement action has been taken to attract new providers to increase available supply of legal aid services.

Information about the number of legal aid contract holders is published as part of the LAA’s Official Statistics: Legal aid statistics quarterly: October to December 2025 - GOV.UK [Tables 9.1-9.8].

A detailed breakdown by procurement area in each category can be accessed via the Legal Aid Provider Contract Statistics Dashboard: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-guide-to-legal-aid-statistics-in-england-and-wales/legal-aid-statistics-data-visualisation-tools.

We have also recently made changes to legislation to ensure that legal aid continues to be available for domestic abuse victims. This includes ensuring legal aid is available for all victims of domestic abuse who can apply for leave to enter or remain in the UK, and to provide comprehensive availability of legal aid in respect to Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders. We are also conducting a review of the domestic abuse evidence requirements which need to be satisfied in order to access legal aid for private family matters. This is to ensure that they are not a barrier to victims accessing legal aid.