HC Deb 02 May 1991 vol 190 cc325-6W
Mrs. Margaret Ewing

To ask the Attorney-General what is the policy of the Government towards reducing the number of persons eligible for legal aid.

The Attorney-General

The Government's policy is to target legal aid to meet need. The Lord Chancellor is conducting a review of the financial conditions for legal aid to see how this can best be achieved.

The number of full civil legal aid certificates issued compared with figures for five and 10 years ago indicates that more people than ever before are taking up legal aid. The figures are in the table:

Number
1979–80 190,677
1984–85 221,209
1989–90 262,581

The estimated figure for 1990–91 is about 300,000. Over the same period, expenditure on legal aid as a whole increased some five fold.