In a devastating report issued this week, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said large gaps in provision exist in parts of the country, particularly for housing and debt advice, despite the committee highlighting the issue in 2024. Last year, the government committed an extra £20m to early advice housing and immigration legal aid—the first increase since 1996.
Referring to LASPO (the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012), the committee said the MoJ has not fully grasped the impact of removing access to most early legal advice more than a decade ago, which research suggests is leading to additional costs in the system.
The committee highlighted the danger of over-reliance on remote advice while almost one quarter (about 24%) of people have difficulty accessing digital and online technology. It also sought clarity on whether enough is being done to address risks in legal aid systems, following the cyber-attack at the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) in December 2024, which was not discovered until April last year and which exposed personal data of legal aid clients.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair, PAC, said: ‘The reforms of a decade ago are now at serious risk of going down in history as an extinction event for the entitlement to access to legal advice in large parts of the country.
‘Our report finds government remaining stubbornly uninterested in whether this is the case, but it must now wake up on this subject.’
Liz Bayram, chief executive of AdviceUK, said: ‘Our members who provide legal aid services have repeatedly raised these concerns, and it is positive to see the committee making clear not only what needs to change but the urgency with which these changes must happen.
‘We also call for independent advice to be recognised and funded as part of the UK’s essential justice infrastructure. Embedded in their communities, advice services are often the first and most trusted source of help for individuals, including marginalised groups who would otherwise remain excluded from the justice system.’
Law Society president Mark Evans said: ‘Despite some recent improvement, the government has not done enough to put legal aid on a sustainable footing.
‘We welcome the recommendations set out by the Public Accounts Committee and share the view that the MoJ should routinely review profitability and sustainability for all types of legal aid. We also agree that the MoJ should make public the lessons learned from the LAA cyber-attack and whether funding and provisions are in place to stop it happening again.
‘We had long warned about the LAA’s antiquated computer systems. Their fragility has prevented vital reforms, including updates to the means test that could help millions more access legal aid. The cyber-attack has delayed their implementation even further. The MoJ must publish a timetable for implementing all the means test changes.’
