Legal aid statistics England and Wales bulletin: April to June 2017
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-05-25)

Legal Aid Statistics. This dataset provides quarterly aggregated data on overall volume and claim expenditure on the legal aid schemes administered by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) for England and Wales. The reports include statistics on Criminal legal aid covering Police stations, magistrates' courts, Prison Law and the Crown Courts alongside Civil Legal Aid covering Legal Help, family mediation, Civil Representation and exceptional case funding). On an annual cycle further datasets released include Client and provider characteristics, Criminal central funds and higher courts, Appeals and Provider based volume and expenditure figures with geography. All datasets are designed to monitor the workload and expenditure of the legal aid system with further more detailed available than provided in accompanying tables.

Published 28 September 2017 
Legal Aid Statistics quarterly, England and Wales, 
April to June 2017 
Main points 
Crime lower workload
down 4% compared to the 
same quarter last year
 
This continues the gradual downward trend of recent 
years. Expenditure on completed work was also  
down, by 3%.  
Crown Court completed 
workload down 12%
compared to the same 
quarter last year 
 
Expenditure on completed work fell by 11% over this 
period, and new orders for legal representation in the 
Crown Court continued to decline.   
14% fewer legal help new 
matter starts than in the 
same period of 2016
 
The volume of completed claims also decreased, by 9% 
and expenditure by 3%. 
Family mediation starts 
were 24% lower than in 
the same quarter of 2016
 
Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings 
(MIAMS) and mediation outcomes also fell over this 
period. 
26% more certificates 
completed for public 
family law than in the 
same quarter last year
 
 
Expenditure on completed work in this category, which 
already accounts for more than half the total cost of civil 
legal aid, rose by 17% (£18m). 
533 applications for 
Exceptional Case 
Funding received in the 
last quarter
 
This is similar to Jan-Mar 2017 (536) but 26% higher 
than Apr-Jun 2016. The proportion of applications 
granted this quarter was 57%.   
 
 
This edition comprises the first release of official statistics for the three-month period from 
April to June 2017 and the latest statement of all figures for previous periods. For more 
detailed commentary, and statistics on providers of legal aid, Central Funds, appealing legal 
aid decisions and legal aid in the higher courts, please refer to the annual publication.  
For technical detail, please refer to the User guide to legal aid statistics. 
 
 
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2 
 
Things you need to know  
These symbols are used throughout this release to navigate to other documents of interest:  
 
 
 
 
To understand trends in legal aid as a whole, it is best to begin by looking at annual 
expenditure figures and then look at trends in both workload and expenditure for each 
category of legal aid. Summarising activity across the legal aid system meaningfully within a 
single number is difficult because of the diversity of services included, from quicker, lower-
cost provision like pre-charge advice to representation in a complex, high-cost court case.  
Expenditure on legal aid is measured differently for different purposes. A measure that is 
best for analysing the costs of different services, for example, may not be practical for 
managing budgets or payments. The three most often-used measures, shown in Fig. 1, are: 
 
Closed-case expenditure is the measure used for expenditure figures throughout these 
legal aid statistics. It represents the total value of payments made to legal aid providers 
in relation to pieces of work that are completed in the period. This basis is comparable 
to volumes of completed work to which it relates, and to the same fine level of detail. 
This does not include income received or expenditure in relation to debt write-offs. 
 
The government budgeting measure known as RDEL (Resource Departmental 
Expenditure Limits) is the main measure used by government to control current 
spending, both to set budgets for future years and report on how much has been spent. 
It represents the value of work carried out in the period better than the closed-case 
measure but cannot be broken down to such a fine level of detail. This measure does 
incorporate income and expenditure in relation to debt. 
 
Figure 1 shows this budgeting measure both in nominal and real terms. ‘Nominal 
terms’ means not adjusted for inflation; 'real terms' means adjusted for inflation to make 
the value of spending in previous years directly comparable with the specified year.  
These measures show a large reduction in legal aid expenditure from around 2010-11, 
which are mostly due to changes to the scope of civil legal aid introduced by the Legal Aid, 
Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act from 2013-14, reductions in criminal 
legal aid workloads and reductions in fees payable to legal aid providers. 
Figure 1: Overall annual legal aid expenditure, by closed-case and RDEL (nominal 
and real-terms) measures (£m), 2005-06 to 2016-17
 
Data visualisation: 
Click for tool allowing 
user-defined charts 
and tables. 
User Guide: 
Click for document 
giving definitions 
and explanations.  
Tables: 
Click for access 
to tables of 
figures. 
Table  
1.0 

 
3 
 
1. Criminal legal aid 
Main point 
 
 
Workloads and expenditure fell in most areas of criminal legal aid between April and 
June 2017 and the same period of the previous year.  
 
Criminal legal aid is sometimes categorised into Crime Lower and Crime Higher. Crime 
Lower includes pre-charge, police station, early court (including magistrates’ court) and 
prison law work. Crime Higher covers work in the Crown and Higher Courts.  
 
Figure 2: Crime overview, closed case volumes and expenditure for Apr-Jun 2017, 
and comparison with Apr-Jun 2016 
 
*includes court duty solicitor sessions 
 
Figure 3: Workload and expenditure in criminal legal aid, Apr-June 14 to Apr-Jun 17 
 
Although Crown Court work comprises a relatively small portion of criminal legal aid in terms 
of volume, it accounts for around two-thirds of all criminal legal aid expenditure. Conversely, 
police station work makes up the largest portion of workload but a much smaller proportion 
of expenditure. 
 
Claim category
Workload 
(% change compared to 
the same quarter last 
year)
Expenditure 
(% change compared 
to the previous 
quarter last year)
Pre-charge suspects (police)
161,000 (0%↔)
£33m (4%↑)
Charged defendants (police)
1,000 (6%↓)
£1m (12%↑)
Virtual courts
1,000 (20%↓)
£0.1m (19%↓)
Magistrates' courts*
75,000 (11%↓)
£32m (11%↓)
Prison Law
5,000 (9%↑)
£4m (11%↑)
Solicitor fee scheme
24,000 (11%↓)
£77m (12%↓)
Advocate fee scheme
25,000 (13%↓)
£53m (17%↓)
High Cost crime cases
2 (100%↑)
£10m (55%↑)
Crime
Workload
291,000 (5%↓) 
Expenditure
£209m (9%↓)
Crime Higher  
48,000 (12%↓) 
£139m (11%↓)
Crime Lower 
243,000 (4%↓)  
£70m (3%↓)
Table  
1.1 

 
4 
 
Pre-charge and charged defendants  
These two categories make up advice before court, mainly heard in the police station before 
a defendant may be charged. They are represented in Figure 3 by the ‘Police Station’ line.  
Pre-charge work made up two-thirds of the Crime Lower workload between April and June 
2017 but less than half of the expenditure. Pre-charge legal aid workload between April and 
June 2017 remains unchanged compared to the previous year. This reflects a recent 
slowing to the general downward trend seen over the last three years, although this trend 
was never as steep as the decline for Crime Lower as a whole, or overall figures from the 
Crime Survey for England and Wales1. 
The majority of the pre-charge workload (87% in April to June 2017) consists of suspects 
receiving legal help with a solicitor in attendance at the police station, with the remainder 
consisting mainly of legal advice over the telephone.  
 
Applications and grants for representation in the criminal courts   
While figures should be interpreted with caution as they may be revised in subsequent 
quarters, the number of orders granted for legally-aided representation in the magistrates’ 
court fell by 10% in this quarter when compared to the same quarter of the previous year. 
This continues the downward trend of the last 3 years, driven recently by Summary Only 
cases (down 21%). The overall number of receipts in the magistrates’ court2 (including 
those not involving legal aid) was 3% down over the same period. The proportion of these 
applications that are granted has changed very little over recent years, at around 95%.  
Orders granted for legally-aided representation in the Crown Court were also down but by 
a smaller degree; 4% this quarter compared to last year. Within this, orders relating to Either 
Way offences fell by 12%, while those relating to Indictable offences increased by 8%; their 
fifth consecutive quarterly rise. The proportion granted remains at almost 100%. 
 
Magistrates’ court completed work 
 
Legally-aided representation in the magistrates’ court comprised around one-third of the 
workload and just under half of expenditure in Crime Lower between April and June 2017. 
The volume of completed work in the magistrates’ court fell by 11% in this quarter when 
compared to the same period of the previous year. Expenditure also fell by 11% (£4m). 
The other area of court work within Crime Lower is in the virtual courts. This accounts for a 
small proportion of workload, and less than half a percent of all crime lower expenditure, but 
has grown over the last few years. Workload this quarter was, however, 20% down on last 
year and expenditure fell by 19%.  
 
Crown Court completed work  
Volumes of cases completed in the Crown Court have declined over recent years but more 
gradually than new orders, due to longer-running cases still awaiting trial.  
Completed work volumes within the solicitor fee scheme were 11% lower in April to June 
2017 than in the same period of the previous year, driven mainly by a 26% fall in cases in 
which the defendant pleads guilty at their earliest opportunity in the Crown Court. This may 
be due to procedural reforms in the court system, with some defendants pleading earlier at 
                                               
1www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearending
mar2017 
2 www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics 
Tables  
2.1 and 2.2 
Tables  
3.1 and 3.2 
Tables  
4.1 – 4.3 
Tables  
2.1 and 2.2 

 
5 
 
the magistrates’ court. Within the advocate fee scheme there was a 13% fall compared to 
the same period last year; again, the largest fall was within the guilty plea category. 
The value of payments for completed cases in the solicitor fee scheme was 12% lower in 
April to June 2017 than in the same period of the previous year, broadly in line with 
volumes. In the advocate fee scheme, the value of payments was 17% lower than in the 
same period of the previous year. 
Very High Cost Cases in the Crown Court (VHCCs)  
VHCCs are those Crown Court cases in which, if the case were to proceed to trial, it would 
be likely to last more than 60 days. These cases can span many years and, while they may 
involve relatively small numbers of cases or defendants, the number of related contracts 
with providers and the amount spent are high in comparison.  
Expenditure on VHCCs has reduced by more than two-thirds over the last decade due to 
changes in rates paid and also a reduction in the proportion of cases classified as a VHCC 
due to the threshold being increased from 40 to 60 days.  
The total of £9.9 million for the latest quarter ending June 2017 was, however, an increase 
of 55% compared to the previous year, and is related to an increase in the conclusion of 
contracts that were opened under fixed fee offers.  VHCCs currently represent around 7% of 
the overall cost of legal aid in the Crown Court.  
 
Prison law   
Within criminal legal aid overall, prison law comprised 2% of the volume and 2% of 
expenditure in April to June 2017. Workload in this quarter increased by 9% compared with 
the same period in the previous year, driven by an increase in advocacy at prison 
disciplinary hearings. This category currently makes up around one-third of prison law 
workload, but a much smaller proportion of costs as can be seen in Figure 4.  
Expenditure on prison law rose by 11% over the same period, with increases in each of the 
main categories.  
Figure 4: Volume and value of workload within prison law, Apr-Jun 14 to Apr-Jun 17 
 
 
 
Table  
4.4 
Tables  
2.1 and 2.2 

 
6 
 
2. Civil legal aid 
Main point  
 
Certificates completed for civil representation in public family law increased by 26% in 
April to June 2017 compared to the same period the previous year. Expenditure on 
completed work in this category, which already accounts for more than half the total 
cost of civil legal aid, rose by 17% (£18m).   
 
Figure 5: Civil overview, closed case volumes and expenditure for Apr-Jun 2017, and 
comparison with Apr-Jun 2016 
 
 
Legal help and controlled legal representation 
In the last quarter, there were 14% fewer legal help new matter starts than in the same 
period of 2016. The volume of completed claims decreased by 9% and expenditure by 3% 
in April to June 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 (figure 5). The implementation of 
the LASPO Act in April 2013 resulted in large reductions in legal help workload, with the 
overall trend falling to less than one-third of pre-LASPO levels.   
 
Figure 6: Completed workload and expenditure in legal help, Apr-Jun 2014 to Apr-Jun 
2017 (Source: tables 5.2 and 5.3) 
 
 
 
Workload 
(% change 
compared to the 
same quarter 
last year)
Expenditure 
(% change 
compared to the 
previous quarter 
last year)
Family Public
23,000 (15%↑)
£123m (17%↑)
Family Private
9,000 (12%↓)
£25m (16%↓)
Mediation and MIAMS*
4,000 (13%↓)
£1m (14%↓)
Immigration
11,000 (4%↓)
£10m (12%↑)
Mental Health
9,000 (6%↓)
£10m (11%↓)
Housing
11,000 (12%↓)
£9m (24%↓)
Other Non-Family
3,000 (9%↑)
£35m (9%↓)
Civil 
workload= 
66,000 (1%↓)
Expenditure = 
£214m (3%↑)
Family 
32,000 (6%↑)
£148m (9%↑)
Non-Family
34,000 (6%↓)
£66m (9%↓)
Table  
1.2 
Tables  
5.1 – 5.3 

 
7 
 
Family legal help  
In April to June 2017 family legal help starts decreased by 13% compared to the same 
quarter last year. There were also decreases in completed claims (16%) and expenditure 
(18%). There was a steep decline immediately following the implementation of LASPO Act 
in April 2013, with a more gradual decline over the last 2 to 3 years. 
In family mediation, Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs) were down 
by 11% in the last quarter compared to the previous year and currently stand at around a 
third of pre-LASPO levels. There were 1,600 mediation starts between April and June 2017, 
which is the lowest number since the LASPO Act was introduced. 
 
Non-family legal help and controlled legal representation  
Legal help and controlled legal representation makes up over 90% of both immigration and 
mental health cases. Controlled legal representation relates to representation at tribunal 
and is often longer and more costly than legal help, but, similar to legal help, the decision on 
whether to grant legal aid is delegated to providers.   
The LASPO Act made changes to the scope of legal aid for immigration law, but some 
areas remained in scope. Workload that remains in the immigration category consists 
largely of asylum-related work. Having fallen by 40% over the 5 years to 2013-14, new 
matter starts in the asylum category stood 20% lower in the April to June 2017 quarter than 
in the same quarter of the previous year.  Completed claims in immigration were down by 
5% in the last quarter compared to the previous year but expenditure was up by 6%. 
Within mental health most funding is spent on providing assistance to sectioned clients 
appealing the terms of their detention before a mental health tribunal. Mental health 
workload fell 7% when comparing the latest quarter to the previous year. Completed claims 
and expenditure also fell by 7% over the same period. 
Over 80% of housing work volume is made up of legal help.  The volume of legally-aided 
housing work halved between July to September 2012 and July to September 2013. The 
trend in both then fluctuated for around 18 months but since 2014 it has been falling. In April 
to June 2017 there was a 13% decrease in housing work starts compared to the same 
quarter the previous year. There were also decreases in completed claims (11%) and 
expenditure (10%). 
 
Civil representation 
The number of civil representation certificates granted in the last quarter was up 10% 
compared to the same period of the previous year. The number of certificates completed 
also increased, by 12%, and the associated expenditure increased by 4% in the same 
period. The drop in civil representation workloads following the implementation of the 
LASPO Act in April 2013 was by a smaller proportion for than for legal help. 
 
 
 
 
 
Tables  
6.1 – 6.10 
Tables 5.1 – 5.3  
and 7.1 – 7.2 
Tables  
5.1 – 5.3 

 
8 
 
Figure 7: Completed workload and expenditure in civil representation, Apr-Jun 2014 
to Apr-Jun 2017 (Source: tables 6.3 and 6.5) 
 
 
Family civil representation  
Certificates granted for family work increased by 10% in April to June 2017 compared to the 
previous year. There was a larger increase in certificates completed (15%) and a similar 
increase in expenditure (10%). This increase was largely due to public family law, which 
makes up around three quarters of family workload and over 80% of family expenditure. The 
18,113 certificates completed in public family law in April to June 2017 was the highest 
quarterly figure in recent years. 
In April to June 2017, applications for civil representation in private family law supported by 
evidence of domestic abuse were down 17% compared to the same period of the 
previous year, although that was the highest quarterly total since this type of application was 
introduced in, in 2013. The number granted was up 6% compared to the same period of 
2016. The proportion of applications granted remained steady at around 70% from the 
inception of this type of application until the end of 2015, but has increased to around 80% 
since. In the latest quarter it was 78%. 
 
 
Non-family civil representation  
Non-family certificates completed make up about 13% of the total civil representation 
workload and about a quarter of the expenditure. There are only a small number of 
immigration and mental health cases in civil representation as most of these come under 
controlled legal representation. The majority of the certificates completed in this category 
are for housing work. There has been a gradual decline in housing certificates completed 
and in expenditure on this category since 2014, and in the latest period there were 17% 
fewer than in the same period of the previous year. 
 
Judicial reviews  
Of all civil representation applications granted, around 3,000 a year relate to judicial review. 
The number granted in April to June 2017 was 17% lower than in the same quarter in 2016. 
Over one third (37%) of judicial reviews were for immigration cases and 29% for public law.   
 
 
Tables  
6.1 – 6.10 
Tables  
6.1 – 6.7 

 
9 
 
Exceptional Case Funding (ECF)   
There were 533 applications for ECF received between April and June 2017. This is similar 
to January to March 2017 (536) but 26% higher than in April to June 2016. 455 (85%) of 
these were new applications. 
Of the 533 ECF applications received between April and June 2017, 95% (504) had been 
determined by the LAA as of 31 August 2017. 57% (287) of these were granted, 24% (119) 
were refused and 17% (88) rejected (see figure 8).  
Among the ECF applications received between April and June 2017, immigration (54%), 
inquest (15%), and family (15%) remained the most requested categories of law (figure 8). 
Figure 8: Volume of ECF applications received and ECF determinations by outcome, 
Apr-Jun 2014 to Apr-Jun 2017. 
 
 
Tables  
8.1 and 8.2 

 
10 
 
3. Further information 
This publication presents quarterly data trends. For figures published annually, including 
those on providers of legal aid, appealing legal aid decisions, Central Funds, butterfly charts 
and legal aid in the higher courts, please refer to our annual publication. 
Accompanying files 
As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release: 
 
Tables: A set of tables, which give further detail and full time series for each 
area. 
 
More detailed data: A detailed file to allow detailed analysis provided in both 
.csv (comma separated values) and .ods (OpenDocument Spreadsheet) formats 
 
Data visualisation tool: A web-based tool allowing the user to view and 
customize charts and tables based on the published statistics. 
 
Index of data in Legal aid statistics: An index to the more detailed data 
published in the .csv and .ods files, lists of available data from Legal Aid systems 
and guidance on how to work with the more detailed data using pivot tables. 
 
User Guide to legal aid statistics: This provides comprehensive information 
about data sources and quality as well as key legislative changes. 
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standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value. 
All official statistics should comply with all aspects of the Code of Practice for 
Official Statistics. They are awarded National Statistics status following an 
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the statistics meet the highest standards of Code compliance, including the value they add 
to public decisions and debate. 
It is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards 
expected for National Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are 
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promptly. National Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards 
are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored. 
Contact 
Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office: 
Tel: xx-xxxx-xxxx 
Email: xxx@xxx.xx  
Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to the Justice Statistics Analytical 
Services division of the Ministry of Justice: 
Richard Field, Head of legal aid statistics  
Ministry of Justice, 7th Floor, 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ 
Email: xxx@xxx.xx 
Next update: 14 December 2017 
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