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More than half of a new £16.6 million funding pot is to be spent on legal aid cases relating to domestic violence and families, the Legal Services Commission (LSC) announced today.

The LSC has completed the tender and awarded contracts for 67,000 extra cases across five categories of law in addition to the 850,000 cases budgeted for at the start of the financial year.

The tender is part of the wider legal aid reforms which aim to direct more resources into civil legal services.

This will allow the LSC to offer more advice in certain categories of law in England and Wales and improve access to legal aid for some of the most vulnerable people without increasing the overall legal aid budget. 

The types of cases receiving this new funding are:

• Family and domestic violence: 33,000 cases worth £8.94m
• Community Care: 5,500 cases worth £2m
• Welfare Benefits: 8,428 cases worth £1.5m
• Housing: 7,485 cases worth £1.4m
• Debt: 7,945 cases worth £1.4m
• Employment: 3,885 cases worth £930,000.

The new funding will help build on the success of last year when legal aid paid for a record number of civil legal aid cases for some of the most vulnerable people in England and Wales.

This funding round is expected to improve access to services in all of the above categories of law. 

Geographical gaps in services arose partly because services were delivered from where lawyers’ practices were traditionally set up.

Now the LSC is awarding contracts to quality providers based on where help is most needed. This may involve solicitors doing outreach work or expanding into new locations.

This money also allows the LSC to make services more integrated. Crispin Passmore, the Head of the Community Legal Service said:

“It cannot be right that someone fleeing domestic violence, who may face related problems of debt and housing, should need to go to three different legal providers to get the advice they need. Many do not. 

"That is why we are commissioning services that mirror how people experience problems and complement our plans to create Community Legal Advice centres and networks offering holistic and joined up legal aid and advice. We wanted to use this extra money to ensure that legal aid is available in the geographic areas and categories of law where it can make the most difference to people’s lives.

"Research shows that many people experience multiple civil legal problems at the same time. We want to buy integrated legal services that address these problems, minimising the need for people to be referred from one provider to another.”

Media information

Michaela Keating (Tel: 020 7759 0444)