§ Mr. FraserTo ask the Attorney-General how many people used the legal advice and assistance green form scheme analysed by numbers of bills paid to the Legal Aid Board during the years commencing 1 April 1987 and 1 April 1988; and whether legal aid is reaching more people than ever before.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Legal Aid Board did not take over the administration of the legal aid schemes until 1 April 1989. The figures requested for 1987–88 are available in appendix 1A of the Law Society's legal aid annual report for 1987–88. In 1987–88, 1,077,454 bills were paid and the figure for 1988–89 was 994,606.
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 as follows:
Number 1979–80 190,677 1984–85 221,209 1989–90 1259,000 1 Estimated. Over the same period, expenditure on legal aid as a whole increased some fivefold.