Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has taken recent steps to improve the availability of and access to legal aid.

In 2021/22, the Department spent £1.6 billion on legal aid to ensure this vital support is accessible.

We have consulted on changes to the Legal Aid Means Test which will mean an additional 2m people in England and Wales will have access to civil legal aid, and 3.5m more will have access to legal aid at the magistrates’ court.

Alongside this, we are proposing to invest up to £135m a year into criminal legal aid, following the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review; more than £7m to improve access to housing legal aid; £8m expanding access to immigration legal aid; and we are launching a pilot of early legal advice to get people better support more quickly.