Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the oral evidence of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State's evidence to the Justice Select Committee on 4 May 2020, Q131 HC299, what the unbilled amount of legal aid of over £100m is by legal area.
The most recent statistics published for the Legal Aid Agency cover up to and including March 2020. Figures for quarters of the 2020/21 financial year are scheduled for future release, and as such payment data for part (a) of question 62405 cannot yet be provided. The figures for part (b) of the question are displayed below, matching the equivalent period of April, May and June inclusive for each financial year:
Claims for Civil Representation – First Quarter Only | ||
| Completed case expenditure (where costs met by LAA) | Payments on account (live cases) |
Q1 2017/18 | £153,943,450.58 | £53,508,814.89 |
Q1 2018/19 | £149,331,830.09 | £61,087,711.51 |
Q1 2019/20 | £168,696,887.77 | £68,007,236.47 |
The figure of £100m referred to by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State was based upon estimates produced by the Ministry of Justice relating to unbilled work for completed cases. The breakdown of the estimates is as follows:
- £130m
- £80m
All of the above estimates of unbilled work pertain to the position as at 31st March 2020.
As at 31st March 2020, the estimate produced by the Ministry of Justice of the amounts available for legal aid providers to claim in relation to unbilled work on completed matters were –
- £130m
- £80m
As at 31st March 2020, the estimate produced by the Ministry of Justice of the amount available for legal aid providers to claim in relation to payment on account for civil matters pertaining to representation in the civil and family courts was £165m.