Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to inform applicants for Legal Aid that their personal data was compromised in the cyber attack on the Legal Aid Agency on 23 April 2025.

To ensure the best chance of reaching as many potentially impacted individuals as possible the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UK

The statement provides information about the cyber attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect yourself from the impact of a data breach.

The cyber-attack is subject to an ongoing investigation, and we are working closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre. Appropriate actions have been taken to mitigate the impact of the attack, including taking digital services offline. Contingency measures have been put in place to ensure those most in need of legal support and advice can continue to access the help they need during this time. This is an evolving situation, and we continue to update legal providers and users as it develops. To ensure that legal aid providers have the latest position with respect to legal aid applications and billing contingencies, and that affected parties can access the latest developments on the incident, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has created a dedicated space with contingencies and useful resources on GOV.UK.

This data breach is the result of heinous criminal activity but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of the long years of neglect and mismanagement of the justice system under the last Conservative Government. Upon taking office, I was shocked to see how fragile our legal aid systems were. They knew about the vulnerabilities of the Legal Aid Agency digital systems, but did not act. By contrast, since taking office, this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber attacks in future.