Written questions, answers and statements

Legal Aid Scheme: Companies

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Question for Ministry of Justice

UIN 227146, tabled on 28 February 2019

Question

Ellie Reeves
Labour
Lewisham West and Penge
Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal legal aid firms were in operation in each year since 2010.

Answer

Lucy Frazer
Conservative
South East Cambridgeshire
Commons

Answered on

5 March 2019

Based on the most recent data available, the table below shows how many firms (and where a firm has multiple branches, the total number of offices) were active in any given year providing legal aid services in criminal matters.

Numbers of both firms and offices have fluctuated due to a number of factors, including mergers and acquisitions, trends in the rates of criminal offending, and the impact of other policies and market conditions.

Year

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

2018/19

Firms

1,861

1,722

1,656

1,603

1,517

1,512

1,388

1,314

1,271

Offices

2,598

2,415

2,338

2,282

2,172

2,240

1,991

1,998

1,921

Answered by

Ministry of Justice
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