Recommendation 8

Stakeholders, including the Law Society, have often raised concerns about “legal aid deserts”, where large geographical areas do not have a legal aid provider for a particular category of law.19 For example, 183 local authorities had no legal aid provider office for housing issues in 2022–23, with particular gaps in large areas of the South West and the North West. A declining number of providers have made it harder for people to get to their nearest legal aid office. Analysis undertaken by the National Audit Office showed that for most categories of civil law, less than 50% of the population was within 10 kilometres of a legal aid office in 2022–23. In some areas the nearest housing legal aid office is today more than 20 kilometres further away than it was in 2013–14. These distances may be understated as it does not take into account offices that are unable to take on new cases due to a lack of capacity.20 Evidence from Dr Jo Wilding at the University of Sussex also highlighted that even if a client has access to a provider with capacity to take their civil case, some may only provide legal advice services but not representation in court, or vice versa.21