§ Mr. MichaelTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was(a) the total sum of money paid out in legal aid and (b) the sum paid out in respect of each category of offence for each of the last five years.
Mr. John M. TaylorNet expediture on all forms of legal aid in the last five years was as follows:
£ million 1987–88 434 1988–89 475 1989–90 564 1990–91 682 1991–92 906 In respect of each category of offence, figures are available only for the proportion of expenditure accounted for by each category in higher court cases (i.e. those in the Crown Court or the Court of Appeal) for the past four years. This has been set out in the tables:
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Payments made to solicitors 1988–89 per cent. 1989–90 per cent. 1990–91 per cent. 1991–92 per cent. Violence against the person 21.58 22.09 20.48 21.75 Sexual offences 6.46 6.84 7.05 7.16 Burglary 13.64 12.37 11.77 12.39 Robbery 5.46 5.18 5.62 5.40 Theft and handling 22.18 22.17 21.45 20.43 Fraud and forgery 4.57 4.14 5.93 6.81 Criminal damage 2.32 1.93 1.79 2.00 Indictable motoring offences 2.58 1.68 1.48 1.65 Appeals etc 4.70 4.40 4.47 4.85 Other offences 16.51 19.20 19.96 17.56
Payments made to barristers 1988–89 per cent. 1989–90 per cent. 1990–91 per cent. 1991–92 per cent. Violence against the person 21.64 20.99 19.40 20.94 Sexual offences 6.22 6.32 6.42 6.87 Burglary 8.81 7.64 7.12 8.26 Robbery 5.51 5.62 5.74 6.14 Theft and handling 20.41 20.34 18.60 17.78 Fraud and forgery 7.90 8.56 11.35 12.02 Criminal damage 1.82 1.25 1.68 1.34 Indictable motoring offences 1.69 0.93 0.88 1.04 Appeals etc. 1.74 2.19 2.11 2.73 Other offences 24.26 26.16 26.70 22.88 The total net expenditure on legal aid in the higher criminal courts for the past four years was as follows:
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£ million 1988–89 118 1989–90 134 1990–91 157 1991–92 186