Legal Aid Scheme

Ministry of Justice written question – answered am ar 13 Rhagfyr 2018.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Gloria De Piero Gloria De Piero Shadow Minister (Justice)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of applications for exceptional case funding were granted legal aid in every year since 2010.

Photo of Lucy Frazer Lucy Frazer The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice

Prior to 2013, when a case fell outside the usual remit of Community Legal Service funding, an individual could make an application to the Legal Services Commission for exceptional funding under s6(8) of the Access to Justice Act 1999. These cases included disputes, inquests and tribunal hearings. Depending on the type of case, funding could either be granted by the LSC, or by Ministers. The figures below reflect the percentage of cases granted exceptional funding under the provisions of the Access to Justice Act 1999, based on the date they were received by the LSC. Please note these figures have been extracted from raw data held on an operational database, which like any operational database, may contain errors. The data is not maintained to the standard of Official Statistics and has not been subject to any validation methods, and therefore should be interpreted as such.

Financial Year

Applications Received

Grant Rate

2010/11

181

44%

2011/12

161

59%

2012/13*

183

44%

*includes applications received in April 2013 under transitionary provisions.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) superseded the Access to Justice Act 1999 in April 2013 and introduced a new Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) scheme to provide funding where a lack of representation would otherwise risk a breach of an individual’s EU or Convention rights. Information for this scheme is shown below:

Financial Year

Quarter

Applications Received

Applications Determined

Granted

Proportion of determined applications granted

2013-14

Apr-Jun

272

272

7

3%

Jul-Sep

472

472

13

3%

Oct-Dec

403

403

25

6%

Jan-Mar

369

369

27

7%

2014-15

Apr-Jun

270

270

38

14%

Jul-Sep

299

299

50

17%

Oct-Dec

280

280

73

26%

Jan-Mar

323

323

70

22%

2015-16

Apr-Jun

348

348

132

38%

Jul-Sep

298

298

143

48%

Oct-Dec

308

308

176

57%

Jan-Mar (r)

391

391

217

55%

2016-17

Apr-Jun

422

422

224

53%

Jul-Sep

480

480

222

46%

Oct-Dec

443

443

257

58%

Jan-Mar

534

534

292

55%

2017-18

Apr-Jun

536

536

304

57%

Jul-Sep (r)

637

636

348

55%

Oct-Dec (r)

709

708

394

56%

Jan-Mar (r)

743

740

435

59%

2018-19

Apr-Jun (p)

765

720

463

64%

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