Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Legal Advice Deserts

Tuesday 18 May 2021 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Ministerial Questions addressed legal advice deserts in Greater Manchester and Stockport.
  • Navendu Mishra questioned the Government's inaction on providing legal aid in deserts.
  • Responses noted the Legal Aid Agency reviews market capacity to ensure provision.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Navendu Mishra Lab Stockport
Justice & Courts
Context

The question addresses the lack of community legal aid providers in Stockport, which joins the majority of local authorities without such services.

Question

What steps he is taking to tackle legal advice deserts. In Greater Manchester, we are lucky that the Greater Manchester Law Centre provides an excellent service for people across the city region, but in my constituency of Stockport there are no community legal aid providers; it joins the 78% of local authorities in England and Wales that do not have that service. Does the Minister agree that these legal aid deserts are denying vital support to millions of people, and will he make representations to the Treasury to ensure that there is the necessary funding for every area to have an acceptable number of legal aid providers?

Answer from Alex Chalk

Legal advice and legal aid underpin a fair, rules-based society. The Legal Aid Agency keeps market capacity under continual review to ensure provision across England and Wales, and legal advice is always available through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his question. Legal aid is essential, which is why I am delighted that when the law centres sought support from the Government, every penny piece requested was provided—including, by the way, to Greater Manchester Law Centre, which received £140,000. We are standing behind excellent legal aid providers, including those who provide it digitally and remotely, because when it comes to legal advice, what matters most is quality, not necessarily geography.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not address the specific ask about making representations to the Treasury for necessary funding in every area.

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Q2 Navendu Mishra Lab Stockport
Justice & Courts Standards & Ethics
Context

The question highlights the issue of legal aid deserts, particularly in Stockport, where millions lack access to a community care legal aid provider.

Question

My hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) is spot on, is he not? The Government must address the vast deserts where no legal aid providers exist. The disabled and vulnerable in most of England and Wales have been denied access to justice due to the Government's inaction. How can the Minister possibly justify a situation where 37 million people in Stockport, Hull and across the rest of England and Wales do not have access to a community care legal aid provider? He talks tough, he promises all sorts; he does nothing. Get on with it!

Answer from Alex Chalk

It is always a pleasure to hear from the hon. Gentleman. What a shame that when there was a Labour Government, he did nothing to stand up to the Labour Prime Minister who decried “fat cat” legal aid lawyers and said that he was going to “derail the gravy train of legal aid”. Where was the hon. Gentleman then? Nowhere. This is the Government who are getting behind legal aid and getting behind the civil legal aid service, and who, by the way, funded the community justice fund, which provided support for the Disability Law Service that he wants to see, and so do I.

Not addressed: The Minister avoided addressing the specific ask about justifying the lack of access to legal aid providers and instead criticised previous Labour government actions.

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Q3 Karl Turner Ind Kingston upon Hull East
Justice & Courts Standards & Ethics
Context

The question focuses on the absence of legal aid providers in many areas, particularly Stockport and Kingston upon Hull.

Question

My hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) is spot on, is he not? The Government must address the vast deserts where no legal aid providers exist. The disabled and vulnerable in most of England and Wales have been denied access to justice due to the Government's inaction. How can the Minister possibly justify a situation where 37 million people in Stockport, Hull and across the rest of England and Wales do not have access to a community care legal aid provider? He talks tough, he promises all sorts; he does nothing. Get on with it!

Answer from Alex Chalk

It is always a pleasure to hear from the hon. Gentleman. What a shame that when there was a Labour Government, he did nothing to stand up to the Labour Prime Minister who decried “fat cat” legal aid lawyers and said that he was going to “derail the gravy train of legal aid”. Where was the hon. Gentleman then? Nowhere. This is the Government who are getting behind legal aid and getting behind the civil legal aid service, and who, by the way, funded the community justice fund, which provided support for the Disability Law Service that he wants to see, and so do I.

Not addressed: The Minister avoided addressing the specific ask about justifying the lack of access to legal aid providers and instead criticised previous Labour government actions.

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