Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Immigration and Asylum legal aid advisers are registered in (a) each constituency in England and (b) each local authority of (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Northern Ireland and (iv) Scotland.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA), which is responsible for commissioning legal aid services in England and Wales only tracks the number of organisations (referred to as ‘providers’) which hold a contract permitting them to undertake legal aid work, not the number of individual practitioners who provide legal aid services. The LAA commissions and monitors legal aid services by ‘Procurement Area’ or ‘Access Point’ rather than by constituency or local authority. Procurement areas differ for different categories of law.

The LAA frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision of legal aid, in all categories of law, throughout England and Wales. The LAA moves quickly, where issues arise, to secure additional provision and to ensure demand for legal aid services is met across the country.

The Department holds no information regarding legal aid advisers in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Matters concerning Justice and Policing are devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly and Scottish Parliament respectively.