Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing legal aid firms to bill more than twice in 12 months for money owed on cases.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Firms can elect to be paid by either Standard or Variable Monthly Payments, according to which model may be most advantageous to them. The MoJ continues to review the potential impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on legal aid providers and to consider what more might be done to support them. The Legal Aid Agency has published the details of the current options for financial relief available to providers during the COVID-19 outbreak at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/financial-relief-for-legal-aid-practitioners.
The number of active housing legal aid providers is published by the Legal Aid Agency online, and has remained largely static since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. The outbreak has affected the volume of work available to housing legal aid firms, and we are closely monitoring this impact.
At present housing advice is available at 434 offices in England and Wales. The volume of providers holding legal aid contracts at any given time is subject to change due to market forces and other factors. From March to the present date, 7 offices in total have ceased to provide housing services, due to reasons not specifically associated with the effects of COVID-19.
The Ministry of Justice held a consultation on increasing the number of requests for payment on account that may be made per year. The consultation closed on 16 June 2020, and the limit will be increased from two to four permissible within a twelve-month period. This will be implemented once the necessary updates to infrastructure are completed, and the impact of this change will be kept under review.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil legal aid claims for asylum appeal cases exceeded the escape fee from legal aid providers in (a) London and (b) England and Wales.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
FINANCIAL YEAR | LONDON ESCAPE CLAIMS | ALL ESCAPE CLAIMS |
2016-17 | 415 | 469 |
2017-18 | 462 | 507 |
2018-19 | 528 | 600 |
2019-20* | 347 | 404 |
*Please note: The figures for the year 2019-20 covers only the months April to December 2019.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was spent on free and independent police station advice across England and Wales in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many claims were submitted to the Legal Aid Agency for police station attendances in England and Wales in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many paralegals work for firms of solicitors with a criminal legal aid contract.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors hold a criminal legal aid contract as at 1 June 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many new law firms have obtained a criminal legal aid contract in each year since 2010.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Duty Solicitors there are in England and Wales as at 1 June 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many accredited police station representatives there are in England and Wales as at 1 June 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the number of law firms holding a criminal legal aid contract.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Expenditure on police station advice is published as part of Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics. This data can be viewed by accessing Column ‘L’ of the table 2.2 at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019
The number of claims received by the Legal Aid agency for police station attendances is also published in the Legal Aid Agency’s Quarterly Statistics at table 2.1, please note that the number of claims for ‘attendances’ can be found at Column C. These are a specific subset of total claims for all types of police station advice which can be found at Column L of the same table
This information is not held by the Ministry of Justice because the Legal Aid Agency does not record this type of information about Legal Aid Providers.
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than 1 office. There are currently 1,147 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,697 offices. This data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
| 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2021/21 (at June 20) |
New Firms | 12 | 165 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 5 | 115 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
New Offices | 14 | 187 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 87 | 5 | 131 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
Please note ‘New firms’ may be the result of mergers and acquisitions outside of the tender process. Firms may have withdrawn and then re-entered into new contract later. This data has been provided on yearly basis as the data is too granular to provide month on month changes - the year end position has been shown for active firms/offices. There were formal tenders in 2010 and 2017, hence the larger numbers. In 2015/16 after the competitive tender was set aside new firms that had been successful in their bid for an own client contract were allowed to deliver services. The data is correct at 3rd June 2020.
As at 1 June 2020 we have 4455 duty solicitors listed on our database allocated slots for the current rota period. The LAA publishes the duty solicitor rotas here:
There are 2063 reps which includes probationary and accredited on the current list and it is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-crime-contract-2017
We are aware that the Covid19 restrictions have had an impact on the volume of work conducted by Legal Aid providers. The LAA have been in contact with providers to assess the impact on their businesses. Many have reported taking advantage of the schemes made available by HMT and we continue to monitor the situation closely.