Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people with cases before (a) civil and (b) criminal courts received legal aid in (i) England and (ii) York in each year since 1995.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The amount spent on (a) civil and (b) criminal legal aid in (i) cash (i.e. net of operating receipts) and (ii) real terms in each of the last 20 years was provided by way of a written response on 18 June 2013 to the hon. Member for York Central’s Parliamentary Question 160682.

The Legal Aid Agency does not record the number of people who receive legal aid. Instead it records the number of ‘acts of assistance’. One individual may receive a number of separate acts of assistance, and one act of assistance can help more than one person. As the categorisation of legal aid has changed over the last 20 years, acts of assistance relating to representation in court cannot be accurately compared over time. The total acts of assistance relating to civil and criminal cases from 1995 onwards were provided by way of a written response on 18 June 2013 to the hon. Member for York Central’s Parliamentary Question 160683.

With regard to the breakdowns requested for England and York, to extract the information requested from the Legal Aid Agency’s IT Systems would incur disproportionate cost.