Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of practical driving tests in Pembrokeshire.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.

On the 23 April, the Secretary of State for Transport appeared before the Transport Select Committee and announced that DVSA will take further actions to reduce driving test waiting times across the country.

Further information on these actions and progress on the DVSA’s 7-point plan, which was set out last year, can be found on GOV.UK.

For driving test centres (DTCs) that serve Pembrokeshire, DVSA have three potential new driving examiners due to start training later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the amount spent by the Legal Aid Agency on processing exceptional case funding in the 2024-25 financial year, broken down by (a) category of law and (b) case complexity.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held centrally.

The unit cost of processing an application is not specifically tracked or recorded by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), nor is the operating expenditure relating to exceptional case funding (ECF) recorded separately to general legal aid operating expenditure. Information about the operational costs of administering the legal aid scheme is set out in the LAA’s Annual Report and Accounts.

It is not possible to provide costs relating to, or to make an estimate of the costs relating to, processing an application or any part of the application process or overall operational costs associated with the ECF scheme.

Although the LAA records some information about appeal processing times, it does not distinguish between appeals submitted by clients with legal representatives and those without. Information relating to civil legal aid processing times can be found here and criminal legal aid processing times can be found here.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average appeal waiting times are for legal aid cases by (a) represented and (b) unrepresented cases.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held centrally.

The unit cost of processing an application is not specifically tracked or recorded by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), nor is the operating expenditure relating to exceptional case funding (ECF) recorded separately to general legal aid operating expenditure. Information about the operational costs of administering the legal aid scheme is set out in the LAA’s Annual Report and Accounts.

It is not possible to provide costs relating to, or to make an estimate of the costs relating to, processing an application or any part of the application process or overall operational costs associated with the ECF scheme.

Although the LAA records some information about appeal processing times, it does not distinguish between appeals submitted by clients with legal representatives and those without. Information relating to civil legal aid processing times can be found here and criminal legal aid processing times can be found here.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much and what proportion of Legal Aid exceptional case funding was spent on (a) the means test assessment process and (b) operational costs in the last financial year.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held centrally.

The unit cost of processing an application is not specifically tracked or recorded by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), nor is the operating expenditure relating to exceptional case funding (ECF) recorded separately to general legal aid operating expenditure. Information about the operational costs of administering the legal aid scheme is set out in the LAA’s Annual Report and Accounts.

It is not possible to provide costs relating to, or to make an estimate of the costs relating to, processing an application or any part of the application process or overall operational costs associated with the ECF scheme.

Although the LAA records some information about appeal processing times, it does not distinguish between appeals submitted by clients with legal representatives and those without. Information relating to civil legal aid processing times can be found here and criminal legal aid processing times can be found here.

Found: Cymru; Ceredigion Preseli) Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru; Ynys Môn) Andrew Ranger (Labour; Wrexham) Henry Tufnell