Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Require MoJ to detail legal aid reform cost impact on local authorities and courts.
Recommendation
More than ten years since the legal aid reforms, MoJ has still not demonstrated a sufficient understanding of the additional costs of legal aid reforms, particularly the impact of litigants in person. A decade ago our predecessors urged MoJ to get a better understanding of the wider costs of its reforms, which removed access to most early legal advice, and the previous Committee pressed on this again in its 2024 report. MoJ’s continued failure to demonstrate meaningful progress in this area is disappointing. While MoJ has done some work with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government to understand where it is funding additional legal advice, it was not able to demonstrate significant changes it had made as a result of the work. Meanwhile, organisations including the Law Society and the Public Law Project have pointed to research which suggests several areas where the lack of early advice is leading to additional costs, such as healthcare. Given continued widespread concern about the impact of the increased number of litigants in person on courts, we were also dissatisfied with progress MoJ has made on improving its data to ensure it can get a more accurate understanding of the problem. recommendation The Ministry of Justice should write to the Committee alongside its Treasury Minute response setting out: • the results of and its response to its survey of local authorities about the effects of shunting costs to other government departments, and any further investigations it plans. For example, exploring where a lack of early advice creates additional costs for other areas, such as healthcare. • on the impact of the increase in litigants in person on courts, including any additional time and cost as a result, and how it will improve the data it bases its analysis on. For example, taking into account how active a LIP is in court processes.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states it has already written to the Committee, alongside the Treasury Minute, providing the results of its local authority survey and planned investigations. It also committed to writing to the Committee in October 2026 to detail how it will improve data and analysis on the impact of litigants in person.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. The government agrees that published information on fees and charges should be improved. This needs to be balanced against the wider aim to reduce the financial reporting burden and efforts to improve timeliness of financial reporting more generally. The Treasury will update the Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) to align to 6.11 of Managing Public Money (MPM) by Spring 2026 to include clearer reporting guidance for fee-charging public bodies to ensure more effective Parliamentary scrutiny. The government will continue to keep this under review including considering as part of a wider review of Central Government financial reporting and consider if this will be sufficient or whether additional reporting requirements are necessary to achieve the Committee’s objectives.