Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much has been spent on legal aid for asylum seekers in the past 12 months.

Expenditure data for asylum seekers across all legal aid schemes is not held centrally. An individual’s asylum status is not relevant to eligibility for legal aid services and is not specifically tracked or recorded.

The Legal Aid Agency does publish expenditure incurred under all categories of legal aid, including immigration and asylum, as part of its official statistics.

Legal aid is available for asylum cases under paragraph 30 of Schedule 1, Part 1 Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO). This is subject to both a legal merits test and a financial eligibility test.