Legal aid statistics England and Wales bulletin Apr to Jun 2023
Published 28 September 2023
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2023
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Main points
| Representation orders granted in magistrates’ court increased by 6% while Crown Court increased by 11%. | ⬈ | The early workload indicators for court volume and eventual fee payments show increasing trends across the two courts with more serious claims rising in recent periods. |
| In the magistrates’ court the volume of completed work increased by 3% and associated expenditure increased by 11% when compared to the same period last year. | ⬈ | At the police station, the volume of work increased by 4% with expenditure increasing by 17% due to higher fees for police station advice. |
| Overall Crown Court expenditure increased by 14% this quarter compared with the same period of the previous year. | ⬈ | This is driven by rising receipts in the magistrates’ and Crown courts with criminal legal aid workload rising 3% over the same period and higher fees paid in both fee schemes. |
| Civil closed case expenditure increased by 13% this quarter compared to April to June 2022. | ⬈ | This increase is driven by family civil representation expenditure, increasing by 14% over the same period due to an increase in the time taken to progress through the court process. |
| The number of Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings was unchanged compared with the same quarter of 2022. | ⬌ | Mediation outcomes decreased by 3% compared with April to June 2022. |
| Applications for civil representation supported by evidence of domestic violence or child abuse decreased by 5%. | ⬊ | The volume of these granted decreased by 4% compared to the same period of 2022. The proportion of these granted is roughly 86%. |
| 815 applications for Exceptional Case Funding were received in the last quarter. | ⬊ | This is a 7% decrease from the same quarter last year. |
This edition comprises the first release of official statistics for the three-month period from April to June 2023 and the latest statement of all figures for previous periods. For more detailed commentary, and statistics on providers of legal aid, Central Funds and legal aid in the higher courts, please refer to the latest annual publication. For technical detail, please refer to our user guide for these statistics.
Statistician’s comment
This publication shows that expenditure across civil legal aid has increased year on year and has also increased more over the recent quarters. Criminal legal aid expenditure has recovered in the most recent quarter following the impact of strike action last year in the Crown Court, which in turn impacted workload completed and the associated expenditure.
In the last few quarters, we have seen a small increase in police station claims and an increase in representation orders at the magistrates’ court. Expenditure in the police station increased in the quarter again, as expected, due to higher fees for police station advice that were introduced at the end of September 2022. Extended sentencing powers at the magistrates’ court, since temporary implementation in May 2022, has been feeding through to overall volumes with less committals for sentence arriving at the Crown Court and subsequently more trial work held at the lower court.
Overall civil expenditure is returning to pre-pandemic levels driven by large increases in family law expenditure with the number of claims being paid outside of the fixed fee scheme increasing due to more time being taken during the court process. Other non-family workload has not recovered to the same extent, and this is driven by a slow recovery of housing work although in the last quarter this has increased. Overall civil legal aid workload still remains below pre-pandemic levels although trends are increasing in domestic violence and mental health.
Figures are updated, on an experimental basis, covering the criminal legal aid data share between the Legal Aid Agency, The Law Society, The Bar Council and the Crown Prosecution Service. This ongoing series will provide access to detailed information about the legal aid market with even more granular data available in the accompanying analysis tool.
Things you need to know
| Web tool | Help | Tables |
|---|---|---|
| Access our web-based tool to view and customise charts and tables based on the published statistics. | See our user guide for comprehensive information about data sources and quality as well as key legislative changes. | Download our data tables, which give further detail and full time-series for each area. |
To understand trends in legal aid as a whole, it is best to begin by looking at annual expenditure figures and then look at trends in both workload and expenditure for each category of legal aid. Summarising workload activity across the whole legal aid system meaningfully within a single number is difficult because of the diversity of services included and different stages in delivery. For example, legal aid work can be measured at the point when an order for legal aid is granted, or after all the legal aid work is completed and the provider has been paid. Expenditure on legal aid is measured differently for different purposes. The three most commonly used measures, shown in Figure 1, are:
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Closed-case expenditure is the measure used for expenditure figures throughout these legal aid statistics. It represents the total value of payments made to legal aid providers in relation to pieces of work that are completed in the period. This basis is comparable to volumes of completed work to which it relates, and to the same fine level of detail. This does not include income received or expenditure in relation to debt write-offs.
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RDEL (Resource Departmental Expenditure Limits) nominal is the main budgeting measure used by government to control current spending, both to set budgets for future years and report on how much has been spent. It represents the value of work carried out in the period better than the closed-case measure but cannot be broken down to such a fine level of detail. This measure does incorporate income and expenditure in relation to debt. ‘Nominal’ here means not adjusted for inflation.
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RDEL real is the RDEL measure adjusted for inflation to make the value of spending in previous years directly comparable with the specified year.
These measures show a large reduction in legal aid expenditure from around 2010-11, mostly due to changes to the scope of civil legal aid introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act from 2013-14, as well as reductions in criminal legal aid workloads and fees payable to legal aid providers.
Figure 1: Overall annual legal aid expenditure, by closed-case and RDEL nominal and real terms measures (£m), 2005-06 to 2022-23
See interactive breakdown here.
Criminal legal aid
| Web tool | Help | Tables |
|---|---|---|
| Access our web-based tool to view and customise charts and tables based on the published statistics. | See our user guide for comprehensive information about data sources and quality as well as key legislative changes. | Download our data tables, which give further detail and full time-series for each area. |
In the magistrates’ court the volume of completed work increased by 3% and associated expenditure increased by 11% when compared to the same period last year
Meanwhile, at the police station, the volume of work increased by 4% with a 17% increase in corresponding expenditure. This is due to higher fees for police station advice introduced at the end of September 2022.
Criminal legal aid can be categorised into Crime Lower and Crime Higher. Crime Lower (covered in our data visualisation tool) includes police station advice, magistrates’ court and prison law. Meanwhile, Crime Higher (also covered in our data visualisation tool) relates to work in the Crown and Higher Courts.
Figure 2: Crime overview, closed case volumes and expenditure for April to June 2023 compared with April to June 2022
| Crime overview | Workload | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| Crime | 258,536 (3%⬈) | £237.9m (14%⬈) |
| Crime Lower | 220,015 (4%⬈) | £ 70.7m (14%⬈) |
| Crown Court | 38,521 (1%⬈) | £167.2m (14%⬈) |
| Crime Lower category | Workload | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| Advice & Assistance on Appeals | 200 (-22%⬊) | £ 0.4m (-26%⬊) |
| Civil work associated with crime cases | 21 (110%⬈) | £ 0.0m (-48%⬊) |
| Magistrates court representation | 65,615 (3%⬈) | £ 30.0m (11%⬈) |
| Police Station Advice | 150,317 (4%⬈) | £ 35.6m (17%⬈) |
| Prison Law | 3,862 (1%⬈) | £ 4.8m (15%⬈) |
| Crown Court category | Workload | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| Advocate Graduated Fee Scheme | 19,034 (-1%⬊) | £ 68.2m (14%⬈) |
| High Cost Crime | 5 (0%⬌) | £ 1.6m (-12%⬊) |
| Litigator Graduated Fee Scheme | 19,482 (3%⬈) | £ 97.4m (14%⬈) |
See interactive breakdown here.
Although Crown Court work comprises a relatively small portion of criminal legal aid in terms of volume, it accounts for around three quarters of all criminal legal aid expenditure. Conversely, advice relating to the police station makes up around two thirds of workload, but only around a half of expenditure.
Figure 3: Workload in criminal legal aid, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown of crime trend and crime lower.
Figure 4: Expenditure in criminal legal aid, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
Advice and assistance on appeals and civil work associated with crime are excluded from these figures. See interactive breakdown of crime trend and crime lower.
Police station advice
This category made up 68% of the Crime Lower workload between April and June 2023 but only 50% of the expenditure. The workload in this period increased by 4% compared to the previous year, with expenditure increasing by 17% (£5.3m). This is due to a 15% uplift in fees for police station advice introduced at the end of September 2022 as part of the criminal legal aid reforms. This reverses the general downward trend seen over the last few years with a decrease in police station advice workload since 2013-14.
The majority of the police station advice workload (89% in April and June 2023) consists of suspects receiving legal help with a solicitor in attendance at the police station, with the rest mainly consisting of legal advice over the telephone.
Applications and grants for representation in the criminal courts
These figures should be interpreted with caution as they may be revised in subsequent quarters as cases move into the Crown court. The number of orders granted for legally-aided representation in the magistrates’ court increased by 6% this quarter compared to the same quarter of the previous year. This reverses the downward trend of the last 3 years, which has been largely driven by Summary Only cases.
Orders granted for legally-aided representation in the Crown Court increased by 11% this quarter compared to last year. Within the legal aid figure, orders relating to either-way offences increased by 10%, while those relating to indictable offences increased by 17%. The proportion of Crown Court applications granted remains at almost 100%.
Magistrates’ court completed work
Legally-aided representation in the magistrates’ court comprised around a third, (30%) of the workload and around two fifths (42%) of expenditure in Crime Lower between April and June 2023. The volume of completed work (covered in this report) increased by 3% this quarter when compared to the same period of the previous year. Expenditure also increased by 11% (£2.9m).
These changes incorporate the accelerated Criminal legal aid reforms since October 2020 which cover payment for work on sending cases to the Crown Court. This new category shown in the tables accompanying this bulletin had 10,786 completed claims costing around £2.8m this quarter.
Crown Court completed work
Completed work volumes within the litigator (solicitor) fee scheme increased by 3% in April to June 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year, driven mainly by a 17% increase in trial claims.
In the advocate fee scheme, completed claims decreased by 1% compared to the same period last year.
Figure 5: Workload in the Crown Court, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
In the litigator fee scheme, expenditure increased by 14% in April to June 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year. In the advocate fee scheme, the value of payments increased by 14% also compared to the same period of the previous year. Figures for expenditure on work completed in the Crown Court should be interpreted with caution as they may be revised in subsequent quarters as claims are assessed further on appeal and further payments added to the value of some completed claims.
The Very High-Cost Case (VHCC) scheme covers those Crown Court cases which would likely last more than 60 days if they were to proceed to trial. Such cases can span several years and, while they may involve small numbers of defendants, the associated expenditure is high in comparison.
There were 5 defendants represented in the VHCC contracts that concluded in the April to June 2023 quarter. Expenditure on this work over the duration of the contracts (i.e. on the closed-case basis) was £1.6m. This compares with £10.7m of expenditure during the same period across all ongoing claims within the VHCC scheme, suggesting that there is a large backlog of claims in the court system waiting to be finalised.
While workload comprises a tiny proportion of legal aid in the Crown Court overall, the VHCC scheme represents around 1% of the cost, although down from 12% in April to May 2013.
Figure 6: Expenditure in the Crown Court, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
The large falls in completed expenditure are a consequence of fewer jury trials completing in the Crown Court during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as all expenditure across the case will be in the final main bill. Figure 7 below, looking at the litigator fee scheme only, but true of both schemes, shows the impact of falling trials on expenditure. These types of cases were particularly affected, because they need more courtroom space and distancing measures and are likely to include witnesses and members of the public in the jury pool. Trial completed expenditure was more adversely affected than guilty pleas and cracked trials (where a defendant changes their plea before the trial), with litigator fee expenditure much lower.
Figure 7: Litigator Fee Scheme Crown Court expenditure by claim type, April to June 2015 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Prison Law
Workload this quarter increased by 1% compared with the same period in the previous year. This is driven mainly by free standing advice and assistance which decreased by 12% when compared to April to June 2022.
Conversely, advocacy assistance at parole board hearings increased by 15% compared to last year, although they have decreased by 2% since last quarter (see Figure 8). Advocacy at parole board hearings currently makes up around two fifths(42%) of prison law workload, but a much larger proportion of costs (78%), so expenditure on prison law overall increased by 15% over this period, with a 5% decrease in free standing advice and assistance reducing the overall increase.
Since April to June 2020, the workload and expenditure for advocacy assistance at prison discipline hearings has remained low with a change in process for internal prisons hearings continuing since the COVID-19 pandemic. Year-to-year comparisons show that workload increased by 74% and expenditure increased by 117% this quarter compared to last year.
Prison law work still comprises a small portion of the volume (1%) and expenditure (2%) of total criminal legal aid work in April to June 2023.
Figure 8: Prison Law completed workload, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
Figure 9: Prison Law completed expenditure, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
Two new categories with small volumes are not shown: ‘advocacy assistance at sentence reviews’ and ‘advocacy assistance at Parole Board reconsideration hearings’.
Civil legal aid
| Web tool | Help | Tables |
|---|---|---|
| Access our web-based tool to view and customise charts and tables based on the published statistics. | See our user guide for comprehensive information about data sources and quality as well as key legislative changes. | Download our data tables, which give further detail and full time-series for each area. |
The number of certificates completed increased by 9%, and the associated expenditure increased by 13% over the same period. At a cost of £226.2m in April to June 2023, total civil representation expenditure is the highest it has been since 2011-12.
This is due to the number of claims being paid outside of the fixed fee scheme increasing due to more time being taken during the court process.
Civil legal aid can be categorised by area of law into family and non-family. The category of family legal aid covers all work on both private and public family law and includes work associated with the Children Act, domestic abuse, financial provision and family mediation. Non-family legal aid encompasses all work related to immigration, mental health, housing and other non-family law.
Figure 10: Civil overview, closed case volumes and expenditure for April to June 2023, and comparison with April to June 2022
| Civil overview | Workload | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| Civil | 68,156 (9%⬈) | £250.7m (13%⬈) |
| Family | 30,308 (7%⬈) | £208.0m (14%⬈) |
| Non-Family | 33,182 (13%⬈) | £ 41.3m (9%⬈) |
| Family category | Workload | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| Family Public | 19,103 (9%⬈) | £165.4m (15%⬈) |
| Family Private | 11,205 (4%⬈) | £ 42.5m (11%⬈) |
| Mediation and MIAMS* | 4,666 (-1%⬊) | £ 1.4m (-1%⬊) |
| Non-Family category | Workload | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| Immigration | 12,871 (17%⬈) | £ 11.0m (11%⬈) |
| Mental Health | 8,494 (-4%⬊) | £ 11.9m (4%⬈) |
| Housing | 7,927 (23%⬈) | £ 5.8m (12%⬈) |
| Other Non-Family | 3,890 (21%⬈) | £ 12.7m (10%⬈) |
*Mediation and MIAMS are not included in the Family total.
See interactive breakdown here.
Although the workload for family and non-family cases is similar, comprising 30,308 and 33,182 cases in April to June 2023 respectively, non-family cases make up only around a fifth of total civil legal aid expenditure (17%). Public family legal aid makes up just under two thirds (58%) of family legal aid work and around two thirds (69%) of expenditure.
Legal help and controlled legal representation
In the last quarter, there was a 6% increase in legal help new matter starts compared to the same period of 2022. The volume of completed claims increased by 11% and expenditure increased by 1% in April to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022 (Figure 11).
The implementation of the LASPO Act in April 2013 resulted in large reductions in legal help workload, with the decline in the overall trend being further exacerbated by the effects of COVID-19, workload now sits at less than one-quarter of pre-LASPO levels.
Figure 11: Completed workload in legal help and controlled legal representation, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Figure 12: Completed workload expenditure in legal help and controlled legal representation, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Family legal help
There was a steep decline in family legal help immediately following the implementation of LASPO Act in April 2013, with a more gradual decline over the last 6 years.
From 1 September 2021, callers to the Civil Legal Advice (CLA) helpline with family issues are no longer referred to specialist telephone advice. In April to June 2023 family legal help starts were unchanged compared to the same quarter last year. Completed claims increased by 2% and expenditure also increased by 2%.
Family mediation involves an independent and impartial professionally-accredited mediator discussing problems with a divorcing or separating couple. A Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAMs) is an initial meeting between one or both parties and a mediator to see if family mediation could be used to reach agreement without using the courts. MIAMs, family mediation starts, and outcomes decreased significantly following the COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020. Since then, volumes and expenditure rapidly increased to levels temporarily exceeding pre-COVID figures. The volume of MIAMs was unchanged in the last quarter compared to the previous year and currently stand at just over a third of pre-LASPO levels.. Family mediation starts decreased by 2% and total outcomes decreased by 3%, of which 58% were successful agreements, and are now sitting at around half of pre-LASPO levels..
Figure 13: Family mediation assessments, starts and agreements, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Non-family legal help and controlled legal representation
Controlled legal representation relates to representation at tribunal, but unlike civil representation, the decision on whether to grant legal aid is delegated to providers.
Legal help and controlled legal representation make up 97% of immigration and 94% of mental health legal aid cases.
The LASPO Act 2012 made changes to the scope of legal aid for immigration law, but some areas remained in scope. Workload that remains in the immigration category consists largely of asylum-related work. Having fallen by over 45% in April to June 2020, new matter starts in immigration increased by 5% in April to June 2023 compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Completed claims in immigration increased by 18% in the last quarter compared to the previous year and expenditure increased by 10%.
Within mental health, most funding is spent on providing assistance to sectioned clients appealing the terms of their detention before a mental health tribunal. Mental health new matter starts decreased by 2% when comparing the latest quarter to the previous year. Completed claims also decreased by 4% and expenditure decreased by 7% over the same period.
More than three quarters (83%) of legal aid housing work volume is made up of legal help. The volume of legally-aided housing work halved between July to September 2012 and July to September 2013 following LASPO. Starts and completed claims nearly halved again during the first COVID-19 lockdown between January to March 2020 and April to June 2020. In more recent months, April to June 2023, there was a 15% increase in housing work starts compared to the same quarter the previous year. There were also a 23% increase in completed claims with a 3% decrease in expenditure.
Civil representation
The number of civil representation certificates granted in the last quarter decreased by 2% compared to the same period of the previous year. The number of certificates completed increased by 9%, and the associated expenditure increased by 15% over the same period.
This is due to the number of claims being paid outside of the fixed fee scheme increasing due to more time being taken during the court process. At a cost of around £226.2m in April to June 2023, total civil representation expenditure where met by the LAA is the highest it has been since 2011-12.
Figure 14: Completed workload in civil representation, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Figure 15: Completed workload expenditure in civil representation, April to June 2011 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Non-Family Civil Representation
Non-family certificates completed make up 12% of the total civil representation workload and 9% of the expenditure. There are only a small number of immigration and mental health cases in civil representation as most work in these areas consists of controlled legal representation. A large proportion of certificates completed in this category are for housing work. There has been a gradual decline in housing certificates completed and expenditure since 2014. Although in the latest period, completed certificates increased by 12% compared to the same period of the previous year.
Family civil representation
Certificates granted for family work decreased by 4% in April to June 2023 compared to the previous year. Certificates completed increased by 9% and associated expenditure has increased by 14% compared to the same quarter the previous year.
While civil representation for public family law remains available, the LASPO Act removed legal aid for most private family law including issues such as contact or divorce. However, legal aid remains available for such cases where there is a risk of domestic violence or child abuse. The volume and expenditure for closed case domestic violence civil representation increased following COVID-19. More recently, in April to June 2023, certificates completed for domestic violence increased by 5% compared to the same period of the previous year.
In April to June 2023, applications for civil representation supported by evidence of domestic violence or child abuse decreased by 5% compared to the same period of the previous year. The number of certificates granted via the domestic violence and child abuse gateway decreased by 4% over the same period. The proportion of applications granted remained steady at around 70% from the inception of this type of application until the end of 2015, before increasing to around 80%. The provisional figure for the latest quarter is 86%.
Figure 16: Applications received and total certificates granted via the domestic violence and child abuse gateway, April to June 2013 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Judicial reviews
Of all civil representation applications granted, 728 in the last quarter related to a judicial review. The number granted in April to June 2023 increased by 12% compared with the same quarter in 2022. Around a half of judicial reviews were for public law. Judicial review data is available in the detailed CSV file accompanying this bulletin.
Exceptional Case Funding (ECF)
The Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) scheme was introduced as part of LASPO. An ECF application for civil legal services is made where a case falls outside the scope of civil legal aid but the client or conducting solicitor believes failure to provide funding would be a breach of the Human Rights Act 1998.
There were 815 applications for ECF received from April to June 2023. This is a 7% decrease from the same quarter last year. 770 (94%) of these were new applications.
Of the 815 ECF applications received between April and June 2023, 97% (792) had been determined by the LAA as of 06 September 2023. 75% (592) of these were granted, 14% (110) were refused and 9% (74) rejected (see Figure 18).
Figure 17: Volume of ECF applications received, April to June 2014 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Among the ECF applications received between April and June 2023, immigration (66%), inquest (12%), and family (12%) remained the most requested categories of law. The increase in ECF applications over the last four years is driven by an increase in immigration applications.
Figure 18: Proportion of ECF determinations by outcome, April to June 2013 to April to June 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Legal aid provider contracts
| Web tool | Help | Tables |
|---|---|---|
| Access our web-based tool to view and customise charts and tables based on the published statistics. | See our user guide for comprehensive information about data sources and quality as well as key legislative changes. | Download our data tables, which give further detail and full time-series for each area. |
In August 2023, there were 2,027 providers and 3,199 offices contracted to deliver legal aid services.
1,093 of these providers and 1,645 of these offices were contracted to deliver criminal legal aid. Meanwhile, 1,268 providers and 2,034 offices were contracted to deliver civil legal aid.
Changes in these statistics are driven by the commencement of new contracts, where typically we see a peak in provider numbers, which then taper off during the lifetime of the contract. Figures may also change for previous months to reflect changes in contract holders that are processed in retrospect.
Figure 19: Number of providers contracted to deliver legal aid services by area of law, September 2018 to August 2023
See interactive breakdown here.
Like our latest annual legal aid provider statistics, these statistics relate to the number of legal aid providers in England and Wales. However, instead of reporting the number of providers starting and completing cases, this chapter instead shows the number of legal aid providers and offices that hold either a crime and/or civil contract in each month. As some providers bill their work in months when they do not hold a contract, these numbers are slightly lower than those presented in the previous chapter. These statistics do not include non-Contracted providers who may be operating under an Individual Case Contract. The number of legal aid providers and offices is accurate as at the start of each month.
The LAA uses these statistics to monitor the availability legal aid services over time, in different areas of law and different regions of England Wales. They are nonetheless a proxy measure of capacity only, since they do not indicate the number of practitioners at a given time.
The underlying anonymised data files and an interactive data dashboard are published quarterly alongside this bulletin. This tool additionally shows the number of members and offices for each police station duty solicitor scheme.
For the number of civil legal aid providers reported in Table 9.7, definitions of each category of law under the Standard civil contract 2018 can be found on the gov.uk website.
Geographical figures in the interactive data dashboard are based on the provider office location and not the location of the client. A provider may serve clients from other geographic areas as well as that in which the office is located. As this data reflects only the location of the provider office it cannot be used as a reliable indicator of the distribution of the clients or benefits of legal aid, or as a precise picture of coverage of legal aid services.
Experimental Statistics: Criminal Legal Aid data share
| Web tool | Help | Tables |
|---|---|---|
| Access our web-based tool to view and customise charts and tables based on the published statistics. | See our user guide for comprehensive information about data sources and quality as well as key legislative changes. | Download our data tables, which give further detail and full time-series for each area. |
As part of the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid covering a complete picture of the legal services provider base (advocacy and litigation) for the publicly-funded criminal justice system in England and Wales, this section discusses the analytical findings from the data sharing agreements between The Law Society, the Bar Council, the Legal Aid Agency, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Justice. The commentary on the analysis is built upon the Summary Information on Publicly Funded Criminal Legal Services.
The figures provide an analysis of the publicly-funded criminal legal system, detailing insights into the characteristics of law firms, their solicitors and barristers that received publicly-funded legal aid case payments. The analysis covers financial year 2014-15 to 2021-22 and are summarised in tables 12.1 to 12.3.
The data collected cover solicitor firms (see interactive dashboard), trainees and solicitor (see interactive dashboard), duty solicitors (see interactive dashboard) and barristers (see interactive dashboard).
Firms that were identified, through the data matching, as receiving criminal legal aid payments during the financial years covered are referred to as criminal legal aid firms. The criminal legal aid fee income shown in the tables includes disbursements and VAT when applicable for the matched criminal legal aid firms.
Further information
National Statistics status
National Statistics status means that official statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value. All official statistics should comply with all aspects of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
They are awarded National Statistics status following an assessment by the Authority’s regulatory arm. The Authority considers whether the statistics meet the highest standards of Code compliance, including the value they add to public decisions and debate.
It is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected for National Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the Authority promptly. National Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.
Contact
Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:
Email: newsdesk@justice.gov.uk Tel: 020 3334 3536
Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to the Data & Analysis directorate of the Ministry of Justice:
Carly Gray Ministry of Justice Email: statistics@justice.gov.uk Tel: +447784 275495
Tables and data
We publish a number of resources alongside the quarterly statistical bulletin:
- A set of Tables, which give further detail and full time-series for each scheme and interactive versions can be found for Crime and Civil.
- An ods spreadsheet download for all ‘Tables’, which provide full time-series for each scheme.
- Also an accessible version of ods spreadsheet download for all ‘Tables’, which also provide full time-series for each scheme.
- Main data and Civil detailed data: Detailed files to enable independent analysis, provided in .csv (Comma delimited) format.
- Diversity data and Provider data: Client characteristics data and Providers starts and completions by area and legal aid schemes are provided in .csv (Comma delimited) format.
- Provider contracts data: Criminal and Civil legal aid provider contracts data are provided in .csv (Comma delimited) format.
- Data share data: Criminal legal aid data share data provided in .csv (Comma delimited) format.
Help
Further information about these statistics is available at the following links:
- User Guide to legal aid statistics: This provides comprehensive information about data sources and quality as well as key legislative changes.
- Index of data in Legal aid statistics: An index to the more detailed data published in the .ods file format, lists of available data from Legal Aid systems and guidance on how to work with the more detailed data.
- Quality Statement: This provides detail on how legal aid statistics meet user needs.
Web tools
Our interactive data visualisation tools can be found at the following links:
- List of data visualisation tools: A list of the web-based tools across the legal aid statistics release.
- Main visualisation tool: A web-based tool allowing the user to view and customise charts and tables based on the published statistics.
Next update: 21 December 2023
URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics
© Crown copyright Produced by the Ministry of Justice
Alternative formats are available on request from statistics@justice.gov.uk.