Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of fixed recoverable costs on the ability of housing legal aid providers to carry out legal aid work.

The extension of Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRC) will control legal costs and make them more certain. We have exceptionally decided to delay the extension of FRC to legally aided housing possession cases for two years. Lord Bellamy KC met the Housing Law Practitioners Association (HLPA) to discuss the impact of FRC on 23 September 2022 and there have been subsequent discussions between HLPA and MoJ officials. The government will continue to keep FRC and its impact on legal aid under review.