Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether members of the legal profession and the judiciary were (a) consulted as part of the review of the (i) civil legal aid means test threshold in 2008 and (ii) criminal legal aid means test threshold in 2009 and (b) consulted when the government has evaluated the legal aid means test thresholds since those dates.

There was no formal consultation with members of the legal profession or the Judiciary as part of the review of the civil legal aid means test threshold in 2009 and the criminal legal aid means test threshold in 2008 or subsequently.

We are currently reviewing the changes made to legal aid as part of the Post-Implementation Review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing, and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 and have engaged with over 80 organisations as part of the evidence gathering process. We will use all the evidence we receive as part of our wider work to establish how best we can empower people to resolve their problems in a modern justice system.