§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many solicitors' firms had legal aid departments in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [177571]
§ Mr. LammyFrom 1997–98 to 1999–2000 the number of solicitors' firms paid for civil and criminal legal aid work was:
Number 1997–98 10,601 1998–99 10,751 1999–2000 10,518 From 2000–01 onwards the number of solicitors' offices holding civil and criminal contracts was:
Civil Criminal 2000–01 4,952 n/a 2001–02 4,932 2,910 2002–03 4,641 2,900 2003–04 4,301 2,669 The number of offices with contracts does not equal the total number of firms because some offices practised both civil and criminal legal aid before 2000–01, or now hold a contract in both civil and criminal law.
Before the introduction of contracting, (January 2000 for civil work and April 2001 for criminal work) any solicitors' firm could undertake legal aid work.
300WThe reduction in the number of solicitors' firms undertaking legal aid work had little effect on capacity, since those solicitors' firms which withdrew tended to do little publicly funded work.