Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total cost was of providing legal aid to asylum seekers in the last year.

Expenditure data for asylum seekers across all legal aid schemes is not held centrally.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) does, however, publish information regarding legal aid expenditure as part of its official statistics on a quarterly basis, including the cost of legal aid provided in respect of asylum matters funded as Controlled Work. That information can be found at column G of table 5.3. Controlled Work covers the provision of legal advice regarding asylum matters and representation before the First Tier (Immigration and Asylum) Tribunal. The LAA also publishes information about the cost of Legal Representation pertaining to immigration and asylum matters (see tables 6.5 and 6.7).