Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data her Department holds on the number of (a) criminal legal aid firms and (b) duty solicitors contracted to provide legal aid in (i) Shropshire and (ii) Telford constituency for each year data is available.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services in England and Wales.

The commissioning and monitoring of criminal legal aid services are undertaken at a national level.

Information about the number of legal aid providers contracted to provide services are published as part of the LAA’s statistics [see tables 9.1-9.8]. These statistics are used by the LAA as management information to monitor the supply of legal aid services over time, in different areas of law and different regions of England Wales.

The duty schemes serving the Shropshire and Telford constituency are the Shrewsbury and Telford schemes. There are currently 13 duty solicitors (members) in the Shrewsbury scheme, 8 duty solicitors in the Telford scheme and a total of 7 criminal legal providers across Shropshire.

The LAA is satisfied that there is adequate provision of criminal legal aid services in Telford and Shropshire, including under the relevant duty solicitor schemes operating in the area.