Legal Aid Scheme: Children and Young People
(asked on 19th May 2016) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) children under 18 years of age and (b) young people aged 18 to 24 were granted legal funding under the Exceptional Case Funding Scheme in (i) 2013-14, (ii) 2014-15 and (iii) 2015-16.
The purpose of the Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) scheme is to provide funding where it is legally needed. It does not provide a general power to fund cases which fall outside the scope of legal aid. Legal aid is a vital part of our justice system, but we cannot escape the continuing need to reduce the deficit. We still have a very generous system - last year we spent £1.6bn on legal aid, around a quarter of the department’s expenditure. Every ECF application is carefully considered by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis.
Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015
FY application received | Under 18 | 18-24 | Unknown |
Apr 2013 - Mar 2014 | 55 | 86 | 6982 |
Apr 2014 - Mar 2015 | 27 | 116 | 67 |
Apr 2015 - Dec 20151 | 31 | 82 | 78 |
1 Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016
2 Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.
Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme, which were granted3, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015
FY application received | Under 18 | 18-24 | Unknown |
Apr 2013 - Mar 2014 | 1 | 4 | 132 |
Apr 2014 - Mar 2015 | 8 | 20 | 3 |
Apr 2015 - Dec 20151 | 12 | 40 | 23 |
1 Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016
2 Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.
3 Granted by 29 February 2016
Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme for immigration cases, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015
FY application received | Under 18 | 18-24 | Unknown |
Apr 2013 - Mar 2014 | - | 12 | 1332 |
Apr 2014 - Mar 2015 | 14 | 39 | 16 |
Apr 2015 - Dec 20151 | 11 | 33 | 25 |
1 Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016
2 Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.
Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme for immigration cases, which were granted3, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015
FY application received | Under 18 | 18-24 | Unknown |
Apr 2013 - Mar 2014 | - | - | 12 |
Apr 2014 - Mar 2015 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
Apr 2015 - Dec 20151 | 10 | 22 | 12 |
1 Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016
2 Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.
3 Granted by 29 February 2016