Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the number of people with hearing impairments or difficulties with speech who are eligible for access to means-tested civil legal aid.

Any individual can access civil legal aid if they meet the eligibility criteria: their issue must be in scope, as set out under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), and they must satisfy means and merits tests. As eligibility for legal aid is not determined by reference to whether an individual has hearing impairments or difficulties with speech this data is not routinely collected and therefore no specific assessment has been made.

In March we published a detailed consultation on legal aid means-testing arrangements. This consultation has now closed, and we are considering responses. We plan to publish a response in Autumn which will set out our final proposals. These proposed changes seek to ensure that the system remains accessible to all who need it. We estimate that they will mean that an additional 2m people in England and Wales will have access to civil legal aid as a result.