Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to compensate providers for additional work created by the cyber security incident at the Legal Aid Agency.

We acknowledge and appreciate the constructive way that providers have worked with us following the serious criminal attack on the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) digital systems. They have continued to do vital work in challenging circumstances.

Time spent on communication with the LAA on specific cases is generally claimable at hourly rates, subject to the provisions of the relevant Contract and the LAA’s published Cost Assessment Guidance.

There is a pre-existing route for making claims for compensation, details of which are on gov.uk. We do not plan to put in place a separate compensation route specific to this incident. Providers will be paid for the work undertaken on legal aid cases in the relevant period.