Independent research

On this page:

What is the Legal Services Research Centre?
How does the LSC use this research?
The LSRC’s project areas
For more information

What is the Legal Services Research Centre?

The Legal Services Research Centre (LSRC) is the independent research arm of the LSC.

A team of specialist researchers carries out strategic research in the civil and criminal justice fields. They conduct both qualitative and quantitative research and publish the findings regularly in journals, papers and books.

How does the LSC use this research?

The LSRC makes a critical contribution to the developments of the LSC's work.

Its projects have informed:

the development of the Community Legal Service
the development and monitoring of LSC and DCA strategic targets
publicly-funded debt advice provision
civil and criminal legal aid contracting
changes to legal aid means testing
the development of the LSC's Funding Code for legal and advice services.

The LSRC also participates in the steering and refereeing of external projects and undertakes projects for other government bodies including:

The LSRC’s project areas

The LSRC is currently working in eight main project areas:

the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey (formerly the LSRC National Periodic Survey of Justiciable Problems)
money advice outreach pilot evaluation
the impact of debt advice
delays in the youth court
spatial dimensions of 'legal need' and legal service provision
diversity of the LSC's service provider base
crime victims, offenders and civil justice
workforce survey.

For more information

The LSRC is part of the Government Social Research (GSR) Network. There are approximately 1,000 social researchers spread across 20 Government departments and agencies.

These researchers work with policy makers to provide research based advice on issues at the cutting edge of social policy.

Please visit the Justice website for more information.

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Last updated: 26 September 2011