Speeches

Michael McCann – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael McCann on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases against the Department for Work and Pensions were funded by legal aid in each of the last 10 years.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) cannot separately identify legal aid cases against the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office. Opponents are not systematically recorded against Legal Aid cases.

The net payments to Public Interest Lawyers over the past ten tears were:

Financial Year

Net Payments

FY2003-2004

£139,620.72

FY2004-2005

£158,282.52

FY2005-2006

£251,844.27

FY2006-2007

£299,667.99

FY2007-2008

£577,263.60

FY2008-2009

£628,527.75

FY2009-2010

£267,433.88

FY2010-2011

£439,268.02

FY2011-2012

£331,238.85

FY2012-2013

£50,633.27

These payments cover all work undertaken by the firm under legal aid. The payments made will be offset by recoupment on successful cases where the opponent has paid the costs.