§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was the total number of legal aid applications over the past three years for(a) criminal and (b) civil cases; and how many were refused. [50362]
§ Mr. HoonInformation on criminal legal aid is broken down into proceedings in the Crown Court and the magistrate's court. The number of applications made, granted and refused in the magistrate's court for representation in that court is not available. The number of applications made for representation in the Crown Court were as follows:
Year Applications made Applications granted Applications refused 1995 126,897 126,658 239 1996 116,721 116,443 278 1997 124,711 124,491 220 The figures include both applications made in the magistrate's court for representation in the Crown Court and applications made direct to the Crown Court.
Civil legal aid is administered by the Legal Aid Board. The table sets out the number of legal aid applications received, granted and refused in the last three calender years.
Year Applications made Applications granted Applications refused 1995 516,654 462,657 53,997 1996 484,074 426,023 58,051 1997 444,538 382,501 62,037