Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the annual savings to be achieved by imposing a residence test for legal aid.

Lord Faulks

This Government believes in the principle of the residence test. It is right that individuals should have a strong connection to the UK to benefit from the civil legal aid system.

The Government does not currently record the residence status of civil legal aid clients so cannot accurately estimate the annual savings that may be achieved by introducing a civil legal aid residence test. It is likely there will be a reduction in legal aid volumes and expenditure from imposing residence restrictions on civil legal aid, resulting in savings to the legal aid fund.