Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if her Department will develop a cross-Departmental advice sector strategy to ensure accessible social welfare advice across (a) health, (b) housing, (c) justice and (d) social care.

We have established the Legal Support Strategy Delivery Group, comprised of key stakeholders from across the advice sector and academia to jointly develop and implement a long-term legal support strategy. The strategy aims to deliver a more sustainable and effective legal support system for social welfare issues covering health inequalities, housing and social care, so people can resolve their legal problems at an early stage. As part of this work, we will continue to engage strategically with other government departments to drive improvements in the cross-government commissioning, funding and evaluation of advice services.

We are also providing over £6 million of grant funding from April 2025 to March 2026 to identify what works best in the delivery and provision of legal support and advice for people with social welfare legal problems.