Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Acknowledged
MoJ's understanding of wider legal aid reform costs remains disappointingly insufficient after a decade.
Recommendation
For a decade, this Committee and its predecessors have urged MoJ to get a better understanding of the wider costs of its legal aid reforms. A 2015 report noted the lack of analysis MoJ had undertaken of the wider impacts of the reforms on itself and other government departments and stressed that it needed to do more.33 In its 2024 report, the previous Committee noted that while MoJ acknowledged that the removal of most early legal advice via its reforms was likely to have led to additional costs to the public sector, its progress in measuring the scale of these costs 29 Qq 33, 59 30 Q 59 31 Letter from the Ministry of Justice, 6 November 2025 32 Public Law Project (MOJ0004) 33 Committee of Public Accounts, Implementing reforms to civil legal aid, Thirty-sixth Report of Session 2014–15, HC 808, 4 February 2015 12 was disappointing. The Committee acknowledged that it would not be possible to get a precise figure on these costs, but stressed the need for MoJ to take further action to better understand these costs.34
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states the department has written to the Committee, alongside the Treasury Minute response, setting out the results of its survey of local authorities and any further investigations planned.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The department has written to the Committee, alongside the Treasury Minute response, setting out the results of its survey of local authorities and any further investigations planned.