Recommendation 4

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.