Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for legal aid were (a) made by and (b) granted to victims of people charged with domestic violence in each local authority area in the North West Police Authority in each year since 2010.
Mr Shailesh Vara
The LAA does not routinely collect information on whether applicants for legal aid are victims of people charged with domestic violence.
Prior to 2013, when people applied for legal aid they were not asked to declare whether domestic violence had occurred. Since 2013, applications for legal aid do not routinely request this information. Therefore the data requested is not available.
People seeking protective injunctions, like non-molestation orders, remain eligible for legal aid. Legal aid also remains available in private family cases that involve domestic violence. We have listened closely to any concerns about how the system has been operating, and made changes in response, such as making it easier to prove abuse and so get legal aid.
The number of applications which require Domestic Violence evidence received and granted following LASPO, and figures for civil representation in the ‘Domestic Violence’ category both pre and post LASPO, are published in the official statistics on legal aid published quarterly on the Gov.uk website at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics
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