Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of potential regional disparities in legal aid provision across England and Wales.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) regularly monitors capacity in the legal aid market and the provision of services and takes immediate action when gaps appear, working with providers to ensure provision nationally. Additionally, legal advice on a range of civil matters including housing, debt, discrimination and education is available, wherever people are, through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.

The LAA has contracts with a range of legal aid providers of varying sizes and capacity to take on new cases. Demand for legal aid services may vary across different categories of law. The LAA will shortly open up a tender to allow additional legal aid providers to bid for a civil legal aid in all categories.

The Ministry of Justice continues to consider the long-term sustainability of the criminal and civil legal aid market and are taking a whole system approach to these important issues.

Our plans will put criminal legal aid on a sustainable footing and ensure there is a sustainable supply of practitioners. Criminal legal aid spend is expected to increase to £1.2 billion per year, which is the highest level since 2010.

We also recently launched a review of civil legal aid to identify evidence-based options which will help inform our longer-term strategy for improving the sustainability and effectiveness of the civil legal aid system.