Legal aid access for digitally excluded
Insufficient provision and access to legal aid for digitally excluded individuals, exacerbated by reliance on remote advice.
Strongest theme matches
Mixed across source types and ranked by classifier confidence plus text match strength.
Committee recommendation
100match
#35 - 3rd Report – Access to Justice: Legal Aid
Remote advice can help extend provision, but it cannot be treated as a complete substitute for local face-to-face services, particularly for digitally excluded or vulnerable clients and for cases involving court proceedings. (Conclusion, Paragraph 108)
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
100match
#14 - LAA explores contract barriers and funds travel to improve legal aid access for vulnerable.
We asked MoJ and LAA for an update on what they are doing to ensure that different groups can access legal aid, particularly those for whom remote advice may not be suitable. LAA explained that since the previous Committee’s evidence session, it had been looking at how to empower providers to use their judgement on the best way...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Committee recommendation
100match
#13 - MoJ failed to detail alternative legal aid routes for those unable to use remote advice.
In its Treasury Minute response to our predecessor’s 2024 report, MoJ acknowledged that while remote advice can be effective, some people will always require face-to-face advice. It said that it had worked with stakeholders to identify safeguards and better understand the impact of remote provision, for example, for those in custody. It stated that where remote advice is...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Committee recommendation
100match
#12 - Legal aid deserts' and remote advice disproportionately exclude vulnerable groups from justice.
Our predecessor Committee’s May 2024 report on legal aid in England and Wales raised concerns around access to legal aid advice in areas of the country lacking face-to-face provision of legal aid. Where there are gaps in provision MoJ and LAA often rely on remote advice to fill the gaps. The Committee stressed that ‘legal aid deserts’, large...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
100match
#3 - Require MoJ and LAA to set out plans for digitally excluded legal aid access and provision.
We are not satisfied that MoJ and the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) are doing enough to ensure that people eligible for legal aid can access it, particularly those who are digitally excluded. This Committee previously raised concerns that LAA’s reliance on remote advice in areas of the country which lack face-to-face provision of legal aid risks disproportionately penalising...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
99match
#38 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
Online legal services should not be seen as a replacement for traditional face-to-face services, especially when such a high proportion of those who qualify for legal aid do not always have reliable access to digital technology. That said, we agree with a number of submissions that have suggested that there is a significant opportunity to use technology to...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Committee recommendation
99match
#35 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
Sustainability issues for civil legal aid providers are sufficiently serious to justify a complete overhaul of the system. A number of witnesses have highlighted that a combination of number of fundamental problems rather than one or two specific issues contribute to the unsustainability of civil legal aid. Furthermore, this lack of sustainability is having a knock-on effect on...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Committee recommendation
99match
#32 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
We recognise the strength of Richard Miller’s suggestion that judges should be empowered to make a direction that an individual needs representation and that it should be binding on the Legal Aid Agency to provide exceptional case funding in that case. Such an approach could increase access to justice for the most vulnerable litigants and improve the efficiency...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Committee recommendation
95match
#30 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
We welcome the Government’s decision to review the means test for both civil and criminal legal aid. There is a strong consensus among witnesses that any revised means test for civil legal aid should be simpler, for example by using passporting, should be set at an objectively defined poverty line and should be regularly uprated. The vast majority...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Committee recommendation
90match
#41 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
The Government should consider creating a system of earned autonomy that places more trust in the decision making of providers with strong records of high-quality decision making. The Agency’s processes should have some incentives for providers to work towards gradually reducing the burden of administrative requirements. Given the difficulties facing legal aid providers, placing greater trust in their...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Committee recommendation
90match
#120 - Broaden Financial Inclusion Committee remit and regularly publish evidence on equitable cash access.
HM Treasury must broaden the terms of reference of the Financial Inclusion Committee on “digital inclusion and access to banking services” explicitly to address the risk that a two-tier economy will lock the digitally excluded out of the economy. HM Treasury must commit to reviewing internally and externally produced evidence on cash access and cash acceptance in the...
Matched on
terms: acces, digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
87match
#42 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
The Government should consider enabling the Legal Aid Agency to provide specific support to legal aid providers to bring in trainees. This support should be targeted to areas where there is a particular shortage of specialist advice.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
87match
#36 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
The basis for the radical change required in civil legal aid requires the Government to establish the level of need for civil legal aid services in England and Wales. Once that is established, the Government needs to ensure that suppliers of legal aid services have the capacity to meet that need. We agree with a number of witnesses...
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
87match
#1 - Committee reviewed HMP Dartmoor lease, legal aid provision, and LAA cyberattack management.
We took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) to follow up on our recent scrutiny of several topics. This included HMPPS’s management of the lease renewal at HMP Dartmoor, MoJ and LAA’s response to the previous Committee’s 2024 report on legal aid and their management...
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
86match
#5 - Set out plans to ensure access and engagement with all audiences, including digital innovation.
The BBC’s mission to ‘serve all audiences’ is at risk as younger audiences choose other media providers, while the BBC’s digital- first strategy could risk alienating non digital audiences. As younger viewers turn to other platforms and older or less digitally connected audiences’ risk being left behind, the BBC’s ability to serve all audiences, a core part of...
Matched on
terms: acces, digitally, excluded
NAO recommendation
85match
Government’s management of legal aid
MoJ should, working with LAA and others, ensure that those who want (and are eligible for) legal aid can access it in future by improving: ? how it monitors whether those who apply for its exceptional case funding scheme individually are able to find a provider and acting to address any issues found. (bullet 2)
Matched on
terms: acces, aid, legal
Inquiry recommendation
83match
143 - Legal aid before the Sheriff
Consideration should be given to securing that legal aid is available in the proceedings before the Sheriff (18.22).
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
83match
#33 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
Civil legal aid, like criminal legal aid, needs the Government to take decisive action to change the approach set by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 at the start of the last decade. Without such a step, the sector will continue to struggle to attract new recruits.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
83match
#5 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
The lack of any increase to criminal legal aid fees for solicitors over the past 20 years needs to be addressed. Sir Christopher Bellamy’s current review, commissioned by the Government, gives an opportunity to do this. Thereafter, fees and rates should be regularly reviewed in line with inflation, otherwise the gap will build up over time and become...
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
78match
#43 - 3rd Report - The Future of Legal Aid
If the Government were to accept the recommendations we have made on how to approach criminal and civil legal aid it will be necessary to address the Legal Agency Aid’s priorities, its institutional capacity and how it uses its resources. The Government should consider whether the Legal Aid Agency should expand its data collection and publication in order...
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
77match
#44 - 3rd Report - Digital exclusion
The Government should commission a review to understand the extent of predictive analytics in public-facing services, their likely trajectory over the next five years and the effects on digital exclusion policy. In the meantime the Government should require public service providers using predictive analytics to consider the use of data and the impacts on those who are digitally...
Matched on
terms: acces, digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
76match
#35 - 3rd Report - Digital exclusion
Formal qualifications are not always the best way to help adults obtain basic digital skills. Local interventions and more informal engagements delivered through community hubs can provide a key way of reaching digitally excluded individuals, and building the motivation, confidence and skills needed to get online. But many smaller organisations find it difficult to access the resources to...
Matched on
terms: acces, digitally, excluded
CJINI report
74match
An Inspection of the Use of Legal Services by the Criminal Justice System
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Inquiry recommendation
74match
HIA-11 - Legal Aid for Applicants
We recommend that applicants should be eligible for legal aid to allow them to obtain legal assistance to make an application for an award.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
CJINI report
74match
Criminal Legal Aid Processing: The effectiveness of the Legal Aid Management System in supporting the achievement of strategic...
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
73match
#2 - 7th Report: Coronavirus (COVID-19): the impact on the legal professions in England and Wales
There have been positive developments in providing online solutions to providing court services, but pending full roll out of HMCTS’s cloud video platform, we recommend that the Ministry of Justice sets out the steps it is taking to ensure that lay parties to hearings have access to the technology they need so that they can communicate well, and...
Matched on
terms: acces, legal
Inquiry recommendation
73match
MACP-43 - Provide Legal Aid for victims' families for representation at appropriate inquests.
That consideration be given to the provision of Legal Aid to victims or the families of victims to cover representation at an Inquest in appropriate cases.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
PHSO casework decision
73match
P-001891 - Legal Aid Agency
Ms V complained the Agency gave incorrect legal aid advice, impacting her relationship with solicitors and a child order. She also cited poor communication and challenged a legal aid appeal decision.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Committee recommendation
69match
#6 - Publish refreshed Digital Inclusion Strategy with detailed focus on older people’s digital needs.
The Government must bring forward a refreshed Digital Inclusion Strategy. The Strategy should have a detailed focus on the needs of digitally excluded older people, including a plan for funding locally delivered digital skills provision and promoting best practice in the public and private sectors in maintaining offline alternatives to digital for as long as needs remain, and...
Matched on
terms: digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
69match
#5 - Government’s outdated Digital Inclusion Strategy fails to address older people’s digital exclusion.
Older age is not in itself a cause of digital exclusion but strongly correlates with some of the key measures, including lack of broadband at home and non-ownership of a smartphone. There is also a large number of “hidden” digitally excluded older people: those who appear to be online, having broadband at home and owning a smartphone, but...
Matched on
terms: digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
65match
#43 - 3rd Report - Digital exclusion
As public-facing services become increasingly digitised, machine learning tools and predictive analytics are likely to influence policy choices and service delivery. Digitally excluded groups are at risk of being poorly represented in key datasets, and hence face further marginalisation.
Matched on
terms: digitally, excluded
Committee recommendation
65match
#3 - Understand digital service replacement capacity and ensure minimum telephone service for all customers.
HMRC has been too willing to let its telephone services fail in the hope this forces people to use its digital services instead. HMRC estimates 66% of calls it receives could be handled online instead. It hopes that by encouraging customers to use digital services it can free up its helplines for vulnerable customers and customers with complex...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid
Committee recommendation
65match
#26 - Universal broadband availability is crucial for the BBC's equitable transition to online services.
The inability to maintain “universal, easy-to-access distribution” is one of the BBC’s principal risks.59 When we asked about how the BBC is preparing for the transition to online, the BBC told us that any move towards it must ensure “no one is left behind,” emphasising that the BBC had no desire to have people who cannot access its...
Matched on
terms: acces, aid
PHSO casework decision
65match
P-003982 - Legal Aid Agency
Miss X complained the Legal Aid Agency failed to provide a breakdown of costs, a final bill, or an estimate of potential costs for her legal case. She stated this caused distress.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
Inquiry recommendation
60match
AC-1c - Legal Support Signposting
IBCA include a prominent reference to the availability of legal support paid by IBCA on all registration and application forms and in public information about the compensation scheme and that the Solicitors Regulation Authority remind solicitors of their obligations.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
PHSO casework decision
60match
P-003836 - Legal Aid Agency
Mr A complained the LAA altered his financial evidence, leading to higher legal fee contributions, and delayed correcting the assessment. He reported financial difficulties and stress due to legal threats.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
PHSO casework decision
60match
P-002438 - Legal Aid Agency
Miss H complained the Legal Aid Agency wrongly disallowed her 2021 application, causing a miscarriage of justice due to lack of representation at appeal and sentencing hearings.
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
LGO / SPSO decision
60match
201305715 - Scottish Legal Aid Board
Mr C complained that the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) handled his funding application unreasonably. He was in extended correspondence with them before formally complaining and, after he did so, he was also unhappy at their handling of his complaint. Mr C had raised two unsuccessful court actions – both funded by SLAB – and was considering raising...
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
IMB recommendation
60match
Heathrow Short Term Holding Facility (2020)
[London Heathrow & London City Airports] The Home Office should arrange that detainees have effective and timely access to legal advice (para. 8.10 – 8.11; 17.4).
Matched on
terms: acces, legal
PFD report
57match
Malcolm Burge
The coroner noted that Newham Council's communication methods did not accommodate the deceased's difficulties with age, mental awareness, and lack of modern technology skills, preventing him from addressing his debt. This lack of accessible communication contributed to the events leading to his death.
Matched on
terms: acces
Committee recommendation
57match
#17 - 13th Report - Regulation of water, energy and broadband
Increasing use of digital communication can leave behind people in vulnerable circumstances, including older people and those with disabilities of mental and physical health, who need or prefer alternative communication channels.45 Citizens Advice told the committee that companies increasingly using AI chatbots to respond to customer queries, which can leave some customers stuck in a cycle of trying...
Matched on
terms: acces
Committee recommendation
57match
#17 - Increasing numbers of unrepresented litigants affect family court efficiency, despite data limitations.
The proportion of cases where neither party was represented in family courts was 39% in 2024, three times that in 2013.31 Many stakeholders who provided written submissions told us that people going through legal disputes without legal representation (litigants in person), often feel overwhelmed by the family court process, including the paperwork and the rules. They also told...
Matched on
terms: legal
IMB recommendation
56match
Gatwick IRC (2021)
Serco should work with the Legal Aid Agency law firms and the Home Office to ensure a return to fixed time and on-site in-person appointments for detained men (section 7.2.4).
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
IMB recommendation
56match
Gatwick IRC/RSTHF (2022)
Improve the quality of legal service provided to the detained men, at least when renewing the service contract with the Legal Aid Agency, and by providing robust feedback to the firms (section 7.2.3).
Matched on
terms: aid, legal
IMB annual report
55match
Heathrow Short Term Holding Facility (2020)
This IMB report for Short Term Holding Facilities at London Heathrow, London City Airports, and Becket and Eaton House Reporting Centres (Feb 2019-Jan 2020) highlights concerns about the suitability of accommodation for longer stays and children, and overcrowding due to transport delays. Key issues include detainee access to medication and legal advice, the quality of DCO inductions and...
Matched on
terms: acces, legal
Inquiry recommendation
55match
IR2-15 - Support Services for Applicants
I recommend that the scheme should include provision of the following support services to be provided without charge to the applicant: a) an advice and advocacy service, supplemented where necessary by discretionary access to independent legal advice and representation, where necessary and within a pre-authorised budget, to assist and advise applicants; b) a financial, insurance and benefits advice...
Matched on
terms: acces, legal
Committee recommendation
53match
#41 - 3rd Report - Digital exclusion
As part of the strategy refresh, the Government should audit public sector websites for compliance with accessibility standards and regulations.
Matched on
terms: acces
Committee recommendation
53match
#40 - 3rd Report - Digital exclusion
Too many online services have poor accessibility for those with additional needs.
Matched on
terms: acces
Committee recommendation
53match
#38 - 3rd Report - Digital exclusion
The Government’s digital inclusion strategy refresh should include support for place-based in-person initiatives to help those who cannot navigate online access to essential services. This could include boosting the role of libraries, community centres and local amenities as inclusion hubs, in partnership with businesses.
Matched on
terms: acces
Committee recommendation
53match
#37 - 3rd Report - Digital exclusion
The shift towards digital by default public services has not been accompanied by commensurate support for those who struggle with digital access. Libraries and community organisations have taken on additional responsibilities to fill these gaps, but without sufficient resources and training.
Matched on
terms: acces