When I worked at the Law Society, I was involved in the analysis of the #LegalAid Agency's directory of providers. This allowed us to map the #LegalAidDeserts - parts of the country devoid of local lawyers to help the vulnerable with problems with housing, community care, education and criminal matters. Normally, this gets updated monthly, with occasional periods where a month is skipped. I checked today, and there have been no updates since July https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/directory-of-legal-aid-providers

@B3Man I don’t expect coverage in every village, but there are significant deserts than mean legal aid provision is simply out of reach for most people

Just by way of example, look at this heat map for community care provision. I think it shows the scale of the issue. The very dark red means no providers, the lighter red means 1, the orange 2-3 and the yellow 4-5

(More maps here if you’re interested https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/campaigns/legal-aid-deserts!)

#AccessToJustice #LegalAid #LegalAidDeserts

The civil #LegalAid system is both underfunded and unsustainable in its current form

It needs radical action from Government

Instead we have a Minister for Justice obsessed with limiting human rights, not improving them 🙄

Would love to follow others interested in #AccessToJustice - please do share, or comment if that’s you! 🙏

(The stats in the post above (👆) on #LegalAidDeserts are from the #LawSociety - their report is linked below)

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/campaigns/legal-aid-deserts

📣 Did you know that, in England and Wales:

❌ 68% of the population have no access to a community care legal aid provider

❌88% don’t have an education legal aid provider in their local authority

❌almost 41% have no housing legal aid provider in their local authority area

❌65% don’t have access to a immigration and asylum legal aid provider

❌80% don’t have access to a welfare legal aid provider

#AccessToJustice #LegalAid #LegalAidDeserts