Oral Answers to Questions

Thelma Walker Excerpts

Tuesday 5th September 2017 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Thelma Walker (Colne Valley) (Lab)]

1. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that people in each region of England and Wales have adequate access to legal aid providers.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr David Lidington)]

The Legal Aid Agency regularly reviews the capacity of the legal aid market to cope with demand for legal aid and takes urgent action where any regional shortfall develops. I intend to look more widely at the impact of recent policy changes on access to legal aid as part of a forthcoming post-implementation review, about which I hope to be able to say more shortly.

[Thelma Walker]

The latest report from the Children’s Society, “Cut off from Justice”, found that in Yorkshire we saw a 56% drop in the availability of free immigration advice between 2012 and 2016. Given the acute vulnerabilities of unaccompanied children who need to access legal advice, will the Secretary of State commit to consider those children in the upcoming review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012?

[Mr Lidington]

There will certainly be an opportunity, as the hon. Lady wishes, for representations to be made and consideration to be given to that sort of change. While the most recent legislation did indeed exclude non-asylum immigration matters, much family law, including cases involving vulnerable children who might be taken into local authority care, is still eligible for legal aid.