What steps his Department is taking to ensure that fee levels for family legal aid are sufficient to maintain a (a) sustainable and (b) geographically accessible network of providers.
It is vital that those who need legal aid – including some of the most vulnerable people in society - can access it wherever they live.Between January 2023 and March 2025, the Ministry of Justice undertook a comprehensive Review of Civil Legal Aid (RoCLA) to identify issues facing the system and improve its sustainability. The review has concluded, and all reports are available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/civil-legal-aid-review, this includes a deep dive on legal aid in family law cases.According to the RoCLA Provider Survey, a higher proportion of family legal aid providers reported being profitable compared to providers in all other categories of law. Family legal aid providers were also significantly less likely to report that they would leave the sector in the next five years. On the other hand, the evidence from the review also indicated that the housing and debt, and immigration and asylum sectors face particularly more acute challenges with service provision and high demand. Therefore, following a consultation, we announced uplifts to housing and debt, and immigration and asylum legal aid fees, which will inject £20 million into the sector each year once fully implemented. This investment will help the Government to reduce the asylum backlog, end hotel use, increase returns and ensure the most vulnerable can access justice. The evidence gathered by RoCLA informed this consultation and the review will continue to shape future policy direction.The Ministry of Justice is looking at other potential changes that could support providers and aid recruitment and retention. This includes, (civil) contractual requirements regarding provider offices and limits to the provision of remote legal aid that providers say are burdensome. Any changes would aim to give providers more autonomy in meeting client need, while maintaining effective in-person provision for clients who need this. We are committed to supporting the recruitment and retention of legal aid practitioners and have provided up to £1.4 million in 2024 and up to a further £1.7 million in 2025 to meet the costs of accrediting and reaccrediting caseworkers to conduct immigration and asylum legal aid work, and we have provided £1.5 million in grant funding for the recruitment of trainee housing solicitors.The Legal Aid Agency regularly reviews available supply to make sure there is adequate provision for legal aid, in all categories of law, and works with the Ministry of Justice to take operational action where it can respond to market pressures that may arise.