Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications of his policies of access to a local legal aid provided for housing advice in (a) Liverpool, Walton constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) the UK.

The government spent £813 million on civil legal aid in the last financial year and is increasing investment specifically for housing legal aid by up to £10 million per annum with the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS). HLPAS providers will be paid for early legal advice work and renumerated at a higher rate for a court duty service compared with the current Housing Possession Court Duty Service (HPCDS) from 1 August 2023. A full impact and equality assessment for HLPAS may be found on the housing legal aid consultation GOV.UK page: Housing Legal Aid: the way forward - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The HLPAS tender is ongoing and the Legal Aid Agency is monitoring the process closely, taking actions where gaps in compliant bids appear. The LAA are currently running a second tender opportunity to ensure provision is available in Liverpool and Merseyside. The deadline for submissions for the tender is 12 pm on 1st March. The procurement timetable confirms that the outcome of the procurement process will be communicated to applicants in June.

The recently announced Review of Civil Legal Aid will assess how the market is currently working and what is driving problems and gaps in provision with the aim of improving the long-term sustainability of the civil legal aid system.