Legal aid statistics: July to September 2020
Activity in the legal aid system for England and Wales, including criminal and civil legal aid, family mediation, providers of legal aid, client characteristics and Central Funds payments.
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Details
The quarterly legal aid statistics bulletin presents statistics on the legal aid scheme administered by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) for England and Wales. This edition comprises the first release of statistics for the three month period from July to September 2020 and also provides the latest statement of figures for all earlier periods. This edition also includes figures provisional figures for October 2020 based on management information are included in the bulletin. These statistics are derived from data held by LAA, produced and published by Legal Aid Statistics team of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).
Statistician’s Comment
This publication shows that workload and expenditure has continued to fall this quarter, due to COVID-19, across almost all legal aid schemes.
Criminal legal aid figures show decreases in expenditure compared to the same quarter last year in schemes that support the court system including the magistrates’ and Crown Court. The incoming workload for representation at the courts has returned to levels seen in the previous year. Complex trial cases ongoing at the Crown Court are not completing due to social distancing measures and reduced capacity in the courts which is impacting closed claim expenditure.
Civil legal aid figures show a mixed picture on volumes and expenditure compared to the same quarter last year, but there are increases across most schemes overall since last quarter. Civil representation applications and mediation workload have returned to levels seen previously, but legal help starts and claims remain much lower than last year. Applications for domestic violence cases have seen the biggest increase since last year.
Section 6 presents provisional figures for October 2020 based on management information. October 2020 figures begin to show a recovery from the impact of COVID-19 in terms of work starting in criminal legal aid, with court representation applications up by 15% in the Crown Courts and 1% in magistrates’ courts compared to the average of the previous quarter. Within civil legal aid, legal help starts increased in October 2020 compared to the average of the previous quarter, with a smaller increase in civil representation applications. It is expected that criminal and civil legal aid volumes will return to, and may temporarily exceed, historic trend levels.
Pre-release
Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:
Ministry of Justice
Secretary of State for Justice, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Courts and Legal Aid, Permanent Secretary, Director General Chief Financial Officer Group, Director of Data and Analysis, Deputy Director Legal Aid Policy, Chief Statistician, Private Secretary Permanent Secretary Office, Special Advisor Inbox, Legal Aid Policy Officials (6), Press Officers (3), Private secretaries (5), Head of Legal Aid Analysis
Legal Aid Agency
Chief Executive, Chief Executive’s Office, Head of Financial Forecasting, Head of External Communications, Senior External Communications Manager, Director of Finance Business Partnering, Service Development Managers (3)