§ Mr. Geraint DaviesTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many legal firms deal with legal aid work; and what the number was in 1996. [125434]
§ Mr. LockThe information is not readily available in the form requested, and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. The Legal Services Commission, which replaced the Legal Aid Board on 1 April 2000, records payments made to solicitors offices and not solicitors firms. One firm may have several offices, but the Commission's payment system cannot identify them as belonging to the same firm.
During the period April 1996 to 31 March 1997, 10,739 offices received legal aid payments. The most recent figure available is for the period 1 April 1998 to 31 March 1999, when the number was 10,751. The figure for 1999–2000 is not yet available but will appear in the Legal Aid Board's final annual report which will be laid before Parliament in July 2000.