Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many requests for legal assistance by asylum applicants were made during the first instance procedure under the (a) regular (b) accelerated (c) border and (d) Dublin procedure categories in the UK in 2018.

The information requested is not held by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA).

The LAA does not record data about the volumes of citizens who request this type of legal assistance, as the application process for the type of legal aid applicable to the matters described is devolved to the appointed solicitor. Where a client is found to be eligible for legal aid in a case of the kind enquired about, this information is reported subsequently to the Legal Aid Agency.