§ Mr. Roger WilliamsTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many people(a) applied for and (b) received legal aid in England and Wales since 2000; and how many people had an application rejected. [165844]
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§ Mr. LammyThe Legal Services Commission is unable to provide figures for criminal and civil Legal Help because decisions about whether to take on a case are made by the supplier and not referred to the Commission on a case-by-case basis.
The Commission can however provide figures for civil representation on the basis of the number of applications for funding certificates received, granted and rejected; the figures are not necessarily reflective of the number of individuals involved.
The figures for civil representation from 2000–01 are in table A. The number of applications received and dealt with by the Crown Courts are in table B. The number of applications received and dealt with by the magistrates' courts are in table C.
The number of applications rejected does not equate to the difference between the number of applications received and the number of applications granted because other outcomes are possible including abandonment or withdrawal of an application, or an offer of contributory funding that the applicant decides not to progress.
Table A-Civil applications 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 Total Funding applications received 226,104 205,821 211,723 643,648 Funding applications granted 174,017 161,988 164,096 500,101 Funding applications rejected 24,353 20,347 22,904 67,604
Table B—Crown court applications1 2000 2001 2002 Total Funding applications received 13,494 12,073 11,080 36,647 Funding applications granted 13,279 11,909 10,890 36,078 Funding applications rejected 264 204 190 672 1Information is available by calendar year only.
Table C-Magistrates' court applications 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 Total Funding applications received 477,307 627,215 662,847 1,767,369 Funding applications granted 449,632 598,422 632,057 1,680,111 Funding applications rejected 23,566 27,797 29,886 81,249