Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 23
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follow-up: Autumn 2025
Published 7 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Ministry of Justice follow-up: Autumn 2025 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Written evidence we received from organisations including the Law Society, Public Law Project and Law Centres Network all raised concerns about whether the actions MoJ has taken to date were sufficient or fast enough to tackle long-term sustainability issues.44 For example, the Law Society stressed that for civil legal aid, there is no mechanism to ensure regular fee reviews going forward, no timetable for the implementation of housing and immigration fees and no commitment for increases to other areas of civil legal aid which are in urgent need of investment. Regarding criminal legal aid fees, it stated that it has been two years since MoJ committed to restructuring the Litigators’ Graduated Fee Scheme (LFGS) through the CLAAB but that no viable scheme has been proposed as MoJ has stated it does not have the required data.45 Cyberattack response
From: Public Accounts Committee, 59th Report - Ministry of Justice follow-up: Autumn 2025 (HC 1240), 7 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 April 2026 (deadline 7 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the recommendations in the response, reporting some as implemented and giving target dates for others.
- On Dartmoor, HMPPS has reviewed its handling of the lease negotiations and identified areas of learning. MoJ and HMPPS will write to the Committee "once the proposed approach to remediating Dartmoor has been decided", with a target date of June 2026.
- On access to legal aid for the digitally excluded, an Ipsos civil demand feasibility study will report by the end of March 2026. The department will report back to the Committee on progress in October 2026.
- On market sustainability, the department will "explore options to routinely monitor the profitability of legal aid firms" and update the Committee in October 2026. Any future policy decisions will be "in the context of the department's spending review settlement".
- On the cyberattack, MoJ and LAA say lessons have already been shared across government. MoJ states that it "has allocated funding to the transformation of LAA systems over the 2026-2029 period".