Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Ministry of Justice lacks concrete plans for routine civil legal aid profitability monitoring
Recommendation
In its Treasury Minute response MoJ stated that it was considering how to monitor profitability more regularly. It said that the Independent Criminal Legal Aid Board (CLAAB), established following the review of criminal legal aid, had included discussion of the current market position. But MoJ did not set out any proposals for more routine monitoring of civil legal aid beyond its review of civil legal aid.40 Since then MoJ has committed to increasing legal aid fees for housing and immigration, but has not yet implemented these uplifts.41
Government Response Summary
The department will explore options to routinely monitor the profitability of legal aid firms, improve the management information collected on demand with the support of Ipsos, and provide an update in October 2026.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: October 2026 5.2 The department recognises that understanding the sustainability of the market and taking steps to support it is important to maintain effective access to justice for clients. 5.3 The department’s current focus in this regard is to improve understanding of demand for legal aid services and the sector’s capacity to meet that demand. This provides direct insight into market sustainability. Part of building this understanding is the department’s work, with support from Ipsos, to explore the feasibility of establishing a repeatable methodology that will help us monitor sustainability by improving the management information collected on demand. This information will feed directly into the legal aid digital transformation programme, which aims to support sustainability by ensuring new digital systems streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens. 5.4 The department will also explore options to routinely monitor the profitability of legal aid firms and interrogate the extent to which this impacts supply and influences market sustainability, alongside considering other factors. The department emphasizes to the Committee the importance of these other factors because future sustainability is shaped not only by fee levels, but also by the experience of providers and clients, the complexity of the system, and associated administrative burdens. Driving improvement in these areas is a core aim of the transformation programme referenced above. 5.5 MoJ will provide an update to the Committee on this work in October 2026. Any future policy decisions based on this will be in the context of the department’s spending review settlement.