Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for legal aid were made in cases relating to homicide in each of the last three years; and how many of those applications were successful.

The Legal Aid Agency does not record on its IT systems whether applications for civil legal aid were made in cases relating to homicide. There is no legal or business requirement for the agency to record this information.In the consideration of civil legal aid eligibility the agency assesses a person’s overall financial circumstances.

The Legal Aid Agency’s IT system that is used to record applications for criminal legal aid does not record an offence type of “Homicide”.