Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of reducing the daily rate of interest charged by the Legal Aid Agency to individuals who owe that Agency money.

Where legally aided clients successfully gain or retain an asset as a result of the publicly funded legal assistance they receive, they should repay the cost of their legal aid.

The rate in the statutory charge is currently set at 8%, the same as the Judgment Debt Interest Rate. It was reviewed in 2008/09.