Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on Ann Limb, what is the status of the issuing the Letters Patent under the Great Seal for Ann Limb’s peerage.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
On 5 February 2026, Dame Ann Limb, DBE was created a Life Peer by Letters Patent sealed under the Great Seal. This was formally announced via a notice placed in the London and Edinburgh Gazettes: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/5049850.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to reply to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Horsham of 6 January 2026.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We apologise for the delay in responding to this letter. As it requires input from multiple government departments, it has not been possible to respond within the usual timeframe. A response is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the cost of legal representation and court proceedings does not prevent individuals from accessing justice; and whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of legal aid eligibility thresholds in meeting that objective.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to the provision of legal aid, recognising the vital role that it plays in underpinning genuine access to justice.
We are considering our approach to eligibility across legal aid, including carefully assessing the impact of the recommendations made by the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts
This Government inherited a legal system in crisis, and we are taking steps to invest in legal aid.
We are providing additional funding of up to £34 million a year for criminal legal aid advocates alongside our commitment to match fund a number of criminal barrister pupillages. This is in addition to the investment of £92 million in the solicitor fee schemes.
Alongside this, we have also announced an uplift to immigration and housing legal aid fees. This amounts to a significant investment of £20 million a year once fully implemented – the first major increase since 1996.
Furthermore, we are delivering the largest expansion of civil legal aid in a decade, enabling bereaved families to access non-means tested legal aid at all inquests where a public authority is an interested person.
Beyond legal aid, this Government is also providing over £6 million of grant funding in 2025-2026 to support access to legal support services for people with social welfare problems. We have also announced nearly £20 million of multi-year funding to extend existing grant programmes to September 2026 and providing a new grant from October 2026 to March 2029.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the legal aid means test thresholds; and whether he plans to update them.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to the provision of legal aid, recognising the vital role that it plays in underpinning genuine access to justice.
We are considering our approach to eligibility across legal aid, including carefully assessing the impact of the recommendations made by the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts
This Government inherited a legal system in crisis, and we are taking steps to invest in legal aid.
We are providing additional funding of up to £34 million a year for criminal legal aid advocates alongside our commitment to match fund a number of criminal barrister pupillages. This is in addition to the investment of £92 million in the solicitor fee schemes.
Alongside this, we have also announced an uplift to immigration and housing legal aid fees. This amounts to a significant investment of £20 million a year once fully implemented – the first major increase since 1996.
Furthermore, we are delivering the largest expansion of civil legal aid in a decade, enabling bereaved families to access non-means tested legal aid at all inquests where a public authority is an interested person.
Beyond legal aid, this Government is also providing over £6 million of grant funding in 2025-2026 to support access to legal support services for people with social welfare problems. We have also announced nearly £20 million of multi-year funding to extend existing grant programmes to September 2026 and providing a new grant from October 2026 to March 2029.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of compensating firms for unpaid labour resulting from the Legal Aid Agency data breach.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We appreciate the constructive way in which legal aid providers have worked with us following the serious criminal attack on the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) digital systems. They have continued to do vital work in challenging circumstances.
Since systems were restored in December 2025, the LAA has processed civil casework, both applications and bills, for the work undertaken by providers during the system outage. Where individual providers believe they have incurred additional billable costs, these can be claimed through the normal billing processes set out in the Costs Assessment Guidance.
We appreciate that some providers have raised concerns regarding additional administrative burdens related to contingency operations. We have worked with stakeholders to simplify processes wherever possible. This has included testing new service functionality with providers before launch and refining services based on the feedback received. For example, we extended the Average Payment Scheme for civil certificated work and temporarily suspended activities such as audits to ease administrative pressures. We have also continued to update guidance and FAQs in direct response to stakeholder input to provide clearer, more streamlined support for providers. Our priority now is working through the backlog of cases which is currently progressing well. All providers will be paid for the legal services provided under their legal aid contracts. We have no plans to set up a compensation scheme.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether revenue raised under his Department's proposed Interest on Lawyer's Client Accounts scheme will be earmarked to support access to justice.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to the biggest expansion of legal aid in a generation as part of the Hillsborough Law and are investing millions on reforming the courts system through unlimited sitting days and better maintaining courts to deliver a world-class justice system.
Funding from an Interest on Lawyers’ Client Accounts (ILCA) scheme will play a crucial role in achieving these priorities from 2028/9 onwards.
The Government has published a consultation on ILCA that closed on 9 March 2026, including how income from such a scheme might be invested. We will carefully consider all responses and provide an official response.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will amend the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Reviews of Sentencing) Order 2006 to include offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 within the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme is an exceptional power. Any expansion of the scheme must be carefully considered.
The Law Commission is currently undertaking a review of the law governing criminal appeals. As part of its public consultation, which ran from February to June 2025, the Commission sought views on a range of potential reforms to the ULS scheme, including whether additional offences, such as animal cruelty offences, should be brought within scope. The consultation closed in June 2025, and the Law Commission is expected to publish its final report in 2026.
The Government will carefully consider the Law Commission’s recommendations on possible reforms to the ULS scheme, including any proposals relating to offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, once the final report is published.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of gender on (a) custodial sentence length and (b) rates of reoffending.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Sentencing decisions are a matter for the courts, which must follow statutory sentencing guidelines, developed by the Sentencing Council, unless it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.
Those guidelines are gender‑neutral, requiring courts to assess culpability, harm, and all relevant aggravating and mitigating factors in each individual case. The law and guidelines allow sentencers to take account of an offender’s personal circumstances where relevant, such as primary caring responsibilities, pregnancy, mental health needs, or experiences of abuse, which may arise more frequently among female offenders.
The Independent Sentencing Review recognised that women in the criminal justice system often present with complex vulnerabilities and are typically lower risk to the public, and that short custodial sentences can be less effective for many women than robust community‑based alternatives. In response, the Government has taken forward reforms through the Sentencing Act 2026 to reduce the unnecessary use of short custodial sentences and expand the use of community‑based disposals where appropriate. These reforms apply to all offenders.
The Government is committed to ensuring sentencing is fair, proportionate, and equitable. Consistency is promoted through statutory guidelines and judicial training. Alongside this, in 2024, the Government has established a Women’s Justice Board to advise on reducing the number of women going to prison with more managed in the community. Community supervision can often be more effective than custody in addressing the root causes of offending, helping women rebuild their lives and reduce reoffending.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure sentencing is equitable across genders.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Sentencing decisions are a matter for the courts, which must follow statutory sentencing guidelines, developed by the Sentencing Council, unless it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.
Those guidelines are gender‑neutral, requiring courts to assess culpability, harm, and all relevant aggravating and mitigating factors in each individual case. The law and guidelines allow sentencers to take account of an offender’s personal circumstances where relevant, such as primary caring responsibilities, pregnancy, mental health needs, or experiences of abuse, which may arise more frequently among female offenders.
The Independent Sentencing Review recognised that women in the criminal justice system often present with complex vulnerabilities and are typically lower risk to the public, and that short custodial sentences can be less effective for many women than robust community‑based alternatives. In response, the Government has taken forward reforms through the Sentencing Act 2026 to reduce the unnecessary use of short custodial sentences and expand the use of community‑based disposals where appropriate. These reforms apply to all offenders.
The Government is committed to ensuring sentencing is fair, proportionate, and equitable. Consistency is promoted through statutory guidelines and judicial training. Alongside this, in 2024, the Government has established a Women’s Justice Board to advise on reducing the number of women going to prison with more managed in the community. Community supervision can often be more effective than custody in addressing the root causes of offending, helping women rebuild their lives and reduce reoffending.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to open the consultation on cohabitation rights reform; and whether that consultation will include proposals covering cohabiting couples who separate without having had children together.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As set out in our manifesto, the Government is committed to strengthening the rights and protections available to women in cohabiting couples. Cohabitation reform is a matter of utmost importance, and we will be consulting this Spring on how best to deliver this commitment. The consultation will consider how best to strengthen the rights of cohabitating couples and the circumstances in which protections may apply, while firmly upholding marriage as one of our most important institutions.
The Government also recognises the challenge posed by the mistaken belief in the myth of “common law marriage”. To improve public awareness of the legal distinction between marriage and cohabitation, we updated GOV.UK guidance last year to set out the legal position clearly. In addition, from September 2026, the updated Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance will also state that schools should teach that “common-law marriage” is a myth by the end of secondary school, helping to tackle persistent misconceptions and improve public understanding of the law.
Legal aid is currently available to a person in a cohabiting couple for some private family proceedings, such as child arrangement orders and transfers of tenancies, where they are a victim of domestic abuse or are at risk of abuse. Funding is subject to providing evidence of domestic abuse and passing the means and merits tests. Where an issue falls outside the scope of legal aid, for example, cohabiting partners seeking to resolve property disputes upon separation, individuals can apply for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF). ECF will be granted if, without legal aid, there is a risk that the person’s human rights may be breached. ECF applications are determined by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis. This Government keeps legal aid policy under review.