Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
Ministry of Justice demonstrates slowness in reviewing legal aid sustainability and provider fees.
Recommendation
MoJ has been slow to initiate and complete its large-scale reviews of the sustainability of civil and criminal legal aid. Lord Bellamy’s review of the criminal legal aid system was published in 2021, eight years after the reforms were introduced. While MoJ has now increased most criminal fees by the minimum 15% recommended in report, it has yet to make some of the recommended changes. Fees paid to civil legal aid providers have not increased since 1996, which means they are approximately half what they were 28 years ago in real terms.60 This Committee previously highlighted that MoJ reduced the fees paid to civil legal aid providers by 10%, but it did not assess the costs or providing legal aid or model the impact of the changes.61 MoJ’s review of civil legal aid is now underway but will not be completed until July 2024.62
Government Response Summary
The MoJ acknowledges the need to monitor the profitability of legal aid work more regularly and is considering how best to do so, including through collaborative groups and the CLAAB, aiming for implementation by Winter 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
6. PAC conclusion: We are not convinced that the Ministry of Justice has put in place sufficient measures to ensure the future sustainability of the legal aid market. 6. PAC Recommendation: The Ministry of Justice should set out in its Treasury Minute response how it plans to improve its ability to respond to emerging sustainability issues in a timely manner. This should include: • how it plans to work with providers to keep the profitability of legal aid work in view; • how it plans to implement the recommendations from the Criminal Legal Aid Board; and • what mechanisms it will put in place to review the sustainability of civil legal aid more routinely once its review is complete in July 2024. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Winter 2024 6.2 The MoJ has undertaken detailed work to understand the profitability of legal aid work, but acknowledges the recommendation to monitor it more regularly, and is considering how best to do this alongside providers. As part of the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR), a detailed financial survey was conducted. Following CLAIR, the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board (CLAAB) was established. CLAAB is independently chaired and attended by the main practitioner representative groups. Previous meetings have included discussion of criminal legal aid data to give an outline of the current market position. CLAAB provides valuable advice to the Lord Chancellor on the operation and structure of criminal legal aid fee schemes and assesses how these schemes should change and modernise. However, CLAAB is independent of MoJ and the Lord Chancellor and its recommendations are not binding, but assessed alongside other considerations. 6.3 The Review of Civil Legal Aid’s (RoCLA) evidence-gathering phase sought to collect profitability information to support policy development. MoJ collaborated with The Law Society to receive data from their quantitative research on the profitability of housing and family providers. MoJ also conducted a survey of civil legal aid providers, in which responders reported whether they are loss-making, breaking even, or profit-making, and of those who are profit-making, responders reported approximate profit margins. This survey received