Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims of cyber crime in (a) Newport West constituency, (b) Wales and (c) England have received Legal Aid in each of the last three years.

The requested information is not held centrally. It is not a requirement for an individual to disclose if they have been a victim of a crime or antisocial behaviour when applying for legal aid. Consequently, it is not possible to specify how many applications have been received across the whole of the legal aid scheme from victims of crime or antisocial behaviour in each of the last three years.

Generally, legal aid is not available to victims in connection with criminal prosecutions. Prosecutions are usually bought on behalf of the Crown, by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and victims are not separately represented.

Civil legal aid is available to victims of human trafficking in connection with certain proceedings under paragraph 32 of Schedule 1 of Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. However, as above those individuals may access other civil legal services without disclosing that they have been victims of human trafficking.