Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) children under 18 and (b) 18 to 24 year olds have applied for legal aid under the Exceptional Case Funding Scheme in (i) 2013-14 and (ii) 2014-15 to date.
Figures presented are taken from published legal aid statistics or more detailed breakdowns where necessary. The age groupings provided are taken from the statistical reporting currently produced and are the latest figures available.
Table 1: Age of client for Legal Help and Civil Representation covering family, immigration and social welfare outcomes, 2010/11 to 2013/14
Financial Year | Age Band | Family | Immigration | Social Welfare |
2010-11 | 18 and under | 24,035 | 13,192 | 3,716 |
19-25 | 61,027 | 28,320 | 39,469 | |
2011-12 | 18 and under | 27,431 | 8,222 | 3,075 |
19-25 | 61,181 | 18,141 | 33,581 | |
2012-13 | 18 and under | 30,227 | 5,252 | 2,567 |
19-25 | 57,143 | 14,818 | 26,406 | |
2013-14 | 18 and under | 36,703 | 4,159 | 1,477 |
19-25 | 44,561 | 11,812 | 11,530 |
Figures covering prison law outcomes are not available from the administrative system as applicant dates of birth are not systematically recorded against Legal Aid cases.
Table 2: Age of client in all legal aid scheme outcomes for 2012/13 and 2013/14
Financial Year | 18 and under | 19-25 |
2012-13 | 97,078 | 244,453 |
2013-14 | 92,965 | 204,641 |
The full official published statistics are available since 2012/13 and can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322449/clients.csv. Corresponding figures for 2011/12 are not available across all areas of law.
These published figures suppress values where low volumes may allow identification of the client alongside further attributes released in the same data extract including ethnicity, gender and disability status.
The information requested on Exceptional Case Funding applicants is supplied in the table below:
Table 3: Age of applicant ECF Oct 2013 to Sep 2014
| Under 18 | 18 to 24 |
Oct 2013 to Mar 2014 | 36 | 56 |
Apr 2014 to Sep 2014 | 14 | 39 |
Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding applicants was collected from October 2013 onwards. The latest available published data is to September 2014 and the figures supplied show each individual applicant only once.