Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people in all regions can access legal aid providers.

The Legal Aid Agency regularly review the capacity of the legal aid market to cope with demand for legal aid and take urgent action where a regional shortfall develops.

I also intend to look more widely at the impact of recent policy changes on access to legal aid as part of a forthcoming post-implementation review, on which I hope to say more shortly.