Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans the Government has to reform requirements for eligibility for legal aid for victims of domestic violence.

Last year we committed to working with domestic violence support groups and legal representative bodies to review the domestic violence evidence requirements for legal aid in private family cases. This review is now coming to end, and we recognise the need for improvements to the system.

We have already announced our intention to completely remove the time limit on all forms of evidence, and to broaden the evidence types to include, for instance, letters from domestic violence support organisations and housing support officers. We will provide further details of the full extent of our proposals shortly.