Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the criminal legal aid spend of his Department was in financial years (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.

Statistics on legal aid volumes and expenditure are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics, and are updated on a quarterly basis. The most recent period for which data is available covers up to and including December 2020.

Figures have therefore been provided for the three most complete financial years as well as the three most recent calendar years for which data is presently available.

Data on the first three quarters only of the 2020/21 Financial Year is also available at gov.uk; figures for the complete financial year will be published on 24 June 2021.