Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to help increase levels of access to legal aid for people in rural areas in Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

It is vital that those who need legal aid, some of the most vulnerable people in our society, can access it wherever they live. We are funding provisions such as Advicenow, which is an online provision.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) monitors the numbers of providers in each procurement area and across all categories of law. It takes operational action where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise and works closely with the Ministry of Justice on policy solutions concerning the supply of legal aid.

Procurement for legal aid contracts is now operated under the ‘always on principle’ so that the procurement remains open during the life of the contract. This is a significant change from the previous approach where firms could only bid to join at the initial tender of what typically was a five-year contract term. This new approach enables new entrants to apply for a contract at any time and for existing providers to expand their services. It is a more flexible approach removing hard deadlines and maximising the available supply of services.

The LAA is satisfied that there is adequate access to legal aid services in Harpenden and Berkhamsted across all categories of legal aid. Provision includes local services such as duty solicitor schemes and national services such as early legal advice under the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service and advice relating to housing, debt, education and discrimination via the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.

The Ministry of Justice has recently concluded a consultation on uplifts to civil legal aid fees (which once fully implemented, would inject an additional £20 million into the sector each year), and is currently consulting on funding of up to £92 million more a year for criminal legal aid solicitors.