Corporate report

Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24: Performance Report (HTML)

Published 25 July 2024

Applies to England and Wales

Legal Aid Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24

For the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

Presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000.

Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 25 July 2024.

IBSN 978-1-5286-5046-5

HC 97

© Crown copyright 2024

Performance Report

Chief Executive’s statement

I am pleased to introduce the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) Annual Report and Accounts for the 2023-24 financial year.

The LAA is an integral part of the justice system, and our services are relied upon by thousands of people across England and Wales to deliver justice outcomes that matter to them. Over the last year the dedication and hard work of colleagues at the LAA and our partners in the justice system has ensured that provision of legal aid, and the delivery of our services, is of the highest level for all our users.

We have continued to deliver our vital services while responding to fast-moving policy changes, exceeding our payment target, making funding decisions in a timely manner, maintaining our resolute focus on error and progressing our digital journey. I am proud of all that we have achieved.

We have processed 93% of applications for civil legal aid in 20 working days, against a target of 85% and we continue to improve our processes and systems for our service users. Exceptional and complex casework has also seen extensive effort across the team to deliver a quality service. We processed 79% of exceptional and complex case applications and emergency applications in 25 working days, only narrowly missing our target of 80%. We also processed 81% of Exceptional Case Funding applications in 25 working days, against a target of 85%. The team has continued work started during 2022-23 to look at internal processes and speed up service delivery. Recent performance is consistently stronger, and we start the 2024-25 reporting year in a positive position to reinforce improvements and deliver a high level of service.

Payments were made accurately and on time throughout the year, with 99% of complete, accurate, eligible bills paid within 20 working days, against a target of 95%. We have maintained excellent levels of service delivery for processing legal aid applications, ensuring that 100% of applications for criminal legal aid are processed within two working days.

We have maintained a strong focus on how we manage public money, through our efforts to reduce payments made in error, and to proactively detect and prevent fraud. In 2023-24, our overall net error rate was 0.68%. This has been managed closely through the year under the leadership of our Finance and Risk Committee. Identifying further opportunities to reduce the likelihood of fraud and error will continue to be a priority focus for us during 2024-25.

As well as addressing error to ensure we manage public money effectively, the LAA had targets for debt recovery during 2023-24 of £11.2 million for unsecured civil debt and £21.6 million for cash and secured crime debt. We consider recovery of 95% of the debt targets to be a successful outcome and exceeded this with an overall recovery level of 105%. This comprised of a 90% recovery rate for civil debt and 113% for crime.

The Public Defender Service (PDS) has continued to represent clients through advice and representation and advocacy and has exceeded its target for accepting duty solicitor calls that are offered, achieving an excellent 98% response rate.

This year, the work of the LAA and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) was scrutinised during the National Audit Office’s review of the Government’s management of legal aid. This was followed by a Public Accounts Committee hearing, which provided the opportunity to explain how we work closely with the MOJ to ensure that legal aid provides access to justice for those who need it, commission and work with the provider market and ensure value for money for taxpayers.

The LAA has continued to work closely with providers and policy colleagues in the MOJ to further progress the aims of the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR), including through the established Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board. This has included implementing an increased fixed fee for cases where pre-recorded cross-examination of a witness takes place under section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, and a fixed fee for additional case preparation for trials and cracked trials.

The LAA is fundamentally reviewing its approach to contracting and procurement. One of the aims is to remove unnecessary barriers to entry to legal aid work. In March 2023, for the first time, the LAA allowed bids from new entrants and existing providers who wanted to expand their services from September 2023 under the 2018 Standard Civil Contract. This was followed up in the tender for the 2024 Standard Civil Contract with an explicit statement that there would be additional opportunities beyond the initial tender to bid to offer or expand services. Therefore, firms will no longer have to wait up to five years to offer legal aid services if they missed out in the initial tender round. The focus for 2024-25 will shift towards embedding and expanding this principle within the 2025 Standard Crime Contract.

Over the last year we have continued to prepare for and deliver significant policy changes including implementing the first phase of the Means Test Review (MTR), removing or reducing financial eligibility tests for under 18s. Alongside this, we have worked with stakeholders to identify and trial new ways of working to simplify processes to improve our service to clients and providers more efficiently. We have invested in improving our digital systems with a new service, ‘Check if your client qualifies’, going live for all civil cases in August 2023 to support the efficient assessment of eligibility. We have also developed a new service for applying for criminal legal aid, Crime Apply, with nearly all providers onboarded by year end, which is on track for full roll out by September 2024 alongside the replacement of all criminal legal aid forms with new digital solutions.

Our people are at the heart of our organisation and are key to us achieving excellence. Over the course of the reporting year we strengthened our learning and development offer to staff to support them to be effective in their roles. Our 2023 People Survey engagement score was 70%, an increase on our 2022 level of engagement and higher than the Civil Service average. This reflected the positive impact of our focus on leading our people through the significant scale of change over the last year. Our focus is to ensure that our diverse workforce remains highly engaged and have the tools and support they need to maintain our excellent level of service and transform our delivery.

We continue to recruit and retain great people with diverse backgrounds, skills and perspectives to ensure we are representative of the citizens we serve and are best placed to provide the highest quality service we possibly can.

In June 2023 Nick Campsie was appointed LAA Board Chair. This is the first time we have had a Non-Executive Board Member (NEBM) as Chair and I am grateful to Nick for his collaboration and support since taking up post. Following the conclusions of their respective second terms we said goodbye to NEBMs, Calum Mercer, former Audit Risk and Assurance Committee (ARAC) Chair and Deep Sagar, former Commercial NEBM. Kenneth Gill was appointed NEBM ARAC Chair in June 2023. I would like to thank Calum and Deep for their valuable contributions over the course of their terms with the agency and all our NEBMs for their support and engagement across another demanding year.

We will continue to work closely with our Justice Digital colleagues to stabilise and modernise our digital systems to facilitate policy change and improve our services for clients and providers. Indeed, collaboration is central to what we do and I would like to thank colleagues across the ministry – policy, legal, finance teams in addition to the solicitors, barristers and agencies who work with us to deliver such important work.

I am proud of the achievements of the LAA this year and going forward I am confident in our ability to provide an excellent service for the public that we serve.

Jane Harbottle

Chief Executive and Accounting Officer

Legal Aid Agency

22 July 2024

From the Lead Non‑Executive Board Member

During my first year as LAA Board Chair, I have visited several LAA offices around the country and been struck each time by the dedication of our staff and the legal firms they work with, and the life-changing impact legal aid has. I am pleased with the impact the Board has had this year, and optimistic that the agency is on track to deliver an improved service for taxpayers, legal aid providers and their clients.

The task of disbursing legal aid is highly complex. Although taxpayers fund legal aid, it is provided by a nationwide network of private sector legal firms and some not-for-profit organisations.

The means test governing entitlement to legal aid is intricate, the fee schemes that govern how legal aid providers are paid are complicated, and the agency’s digital systems require investment. Board meetings provide an opportunity for our senior management team to step back from the day-to-day challenges of operating in that environment and think about longer term priorities. The Board’s focus this year has been on simplifying what the agency does, and to provide legal aid to those who need it more quickly, easing the administration for providers and providing better value for taxpayers.

I have been impressed by the dedication and energy of our legal aid providers, who help often vulnerable citizens in difficult circumstances to access justice. I have appreciated the candour with which legal aid providers have described the challenges they confront and look forward to working collaboratively with them to improve the services we offer to providers and their clients.

A sample of some of the initiatives the Board have worked with management on this year includes:

A scheme piloted in conjunction with 11 solicitor firms tested whether timely guidance from the agency on complex means tests might increase their ability to submit applications ‘right first time’; reducing costs for both providers and the agency and simplifying the process for legal aid applicants. Based on positive feedback from participating firms, we will now look to expand the scheme further.

The agency has sought views from firms and representative bodies about how we might improve the contracts with firms and the associated tender process while maintaining quality standards. The aim is to reduce the burden on providers, give them more flexibility about how they carry out their work and reduce the barriers to entry to the market or expansion. The proposals that have been identified in this process for the next standard crime contract include a doubling of the term to ten years and introduce the ability for new providers to join at any point between the contract start and the penultimate year, rather than solely at the initial tender.

The agency’s systems have not kept pace with technological change over many years and have struggled to accommodate several rounds of complex regulatory changes. We welcome the decision to allocate additional funds in 2024-25 to help stabilise our legacy digital systems. While far from curative of the agency’s digital challenges, it will enable us to start moving in the right direction. In the coming 12 months the Board will work with the agency’s management and MOJ colleagues to agree the multi-year investment programme necessary to remediate our technology and systems.

The Board met formally six times this year. Our focus has largely been as described above, but we have also discussed the agency’s risk tolerance, People Plan and litigation, amongst other corporate issues. I thank my fellow Non-Executive Board Members Kenneth Gill and Professor Suzanne Rab for their insight and guidance provided beyond formal Board meetings. Calum Mercer and Deep Sagar, former Non-Executive Audit Risk and Assurance Committee Chair and Board Member respectively, concluded their terms of appointment in 2023, the Board is grateful for their contribution to the agency.

Working for the LAA is rewarding but rarely easy. Our staff are asked to arbitrate quickly on complex questions with high stakes. Introducing an independent Chairman for the first time has inevitably created additional demands. I commend our CEO, Jane Harbottle, and her management team for rising to that challenge and look forward to working together in the year to come.

Nick Campsie

Lead Non-Executive Board Member

22 July 2024

Headline performance for 2023-24

Processing / Delivery

We processed more than 360,000 applications for legal aid (more than 350,000 in 2022-23)

93% of civil legal aid applications were processed within 20 working days except in the most complex cases (93% in 2022-23)

100% of criminal legal aid applications processed within two working days (100% in 2022‑23)

Processing / Delivery

We processed over 1.3 million bills (over 1.25 million in 2022‑23)

99% of complete, accurate bills were paid within 20 working days, exceeding the 95% target (99% in 2022‑23)

Our people

Our Average Working Days lost stands at 5.2 for the 12 months to March 2024 less than 6.9 for the same rolling period in March 2023

Over 57% of our people had no sickness absence during the 12 months to March 2024 (48% in 2022‑23)

Our people

Our staff engagement score increased by two percentage points to 70% in the annual People Survey. With an 87% response rate (85% in 2022‑23) we are confident this represents the experience of most of our people

Of the Civil Service organisations that participated, the LAA was in the Top 10 for highest engagement score

Reputation

We answered over 130,000 phone calls to our call centres, and exceeded all our customer service and correspondence Key Performance Indicator targets (over 120,000 in 2022‑23)

About the Legal Aid Agency

Our purpose: Working with others to achieve excellence in the delivery of legal aid

Our work to administer legal aid is essential to the fair, efficient and effective operation of the civil, family and criminal justice systems and we have worked closely with legal providers and the wider MOJ to achieve this. Our purpose has been at the heart of all our day-to-day decision‑making and our work to improve legal aid services. The engagement and commitment of our staff is crucial to achieving this.

LAA Vision

To support swift access to justice, through working with others to achieve excellence in the delivery of legal aid.

LAA Mission

Work with providers of our services to ensure fair, prompt and effective access to civil and criminal legal aid and advice in England and Wales. We work across the whole of the justice system to make sure our services meet the needs of everyone who uses them, including the most vulnerable in our society.

Our work is underpinned by our three Strategic Objectives (SO):

Strategic Objective 1 Deliver access to justice through legal aid services that meet the needs of our users

Strategic Objective 2 Modernise our services, delivering value for money for taxpayers

Strategic Objective 3 Become a truly diverse and inclusive employer of choice

Further detail on our Strategic Objectives can be found on pages 16-26 of the Performance Analysis section.

These Strategic Objectives support the wider work of the MOJ, linking to the department’s strategic outcome of providing swift access to justice.

This provides the direction that supports our work to improve and modernise the LAA, securing value for money for the taxpayer and ensuring that our people have the right skills and tools to carry out their roles.

Our people

The success of the LAA is centred around the skill and commitment of our people. They are central to everything we deliver and a focus this year has been on ensuring they have the skills, digital systems and leadership they need to do their role effectively.

A focus on leadership, wellbeing, learning and development and inclusion were key aspects of our People Plan during 2023-24 to enable our staff to perform to the best of their ability. We want to ensure our people are engaged in their work and feel included at every level to enable our staff to perform to the best of their ability.

Our learning and development (L&D) offer was tailored to meet our hybrid approach to work and alongside development programmes ensured our people had access to the right learning when they needed it. Working collaboratively with other agencies we ensured a diverse range of opportunities were available throughout the year for all our people.

Over the last two years we have ensured compliance with the Civil Service and MOJ recruitment principles and reduced the overall time taken to hire someone from the advert going live. This was critical to ensure we could meet additional demands on new policy initiatives such the Means Test Review (MTR).

A priority has been our zero tolerance to bullying, harassment and discrimination and delivering our Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Action Plan. Appointing executive level sponsors and delivering training for leaders have been just two of the actions put in place to encourage our people to report instances so we can tackle them robustly.

We supported our managers throughout the year through training sessions, one to one support and delivered regular updates on the work of the agency and future change through all‑staff calls. We celebrated the achievements of our people through our staff awards and through the monthly CEO awards.

We continue to strive to make the LAA a great place to work, recruiting and retaining the best people, increasing diversity at higher grades and delivering against our People Plan. The People Survey results for 2023 showed a 2% increase in engagement, building on previously high engagement scores. This ensures the LAA continues to provide a positive working environment, a key element of our plans to retain staff.

Our partners

As a critical part of the justice system in England and Wales, we work with a wide range of providers of legal services covering many different business models. These include sole practitioners, large multi-office businesses and not-for-profit organisations. Some provide advice and specialise in a specific area of law, while others deliver work in many different categories of law. We recognise that delivery, evaluation and collaboration are key enablers for achieving the MOJ’s strategic outcome.

We work with stakeholders across the justice system. These include the Law Society and Bar Council, both the Family and Criminal Justice Boards, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Legal Aid Practitioners Group, His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). We also work with other government departments, including the Home Office. Our relationships with our providers are central to the work of the LAA.

Through meetings such as the Crime and Civil Contract Consultative Groups and the Provider Engagement Team, we ensure we have regular engagement on key operational issues and opportunities with the main representative bodies. Our contract managers and case management staff work closely with our provider-base on a daily basis to ensure the smooth running of our contracts and the processing of applications and bills.

We communicate with our partners across a number of channels, including our GOV.UK page, the LAA bulletin, which goes to almost 10,000 subscribers, LinkedIn and our two X (formerly Twitter) channels. These channels work effectively to ensure providers are kept up to date on time‑critical changes, system or policy updates and ensuring good responses to tenders.

Engagement in Wales

The LAA, through strategic working groups, maintains links with the Welsh Government, in recognition of the devolved administration.

We work directly with stakeholder groups, for example, the Criminal and Family Justice Boards for Wales, as well as specific Welsh stakeholders including Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service – CAFCASS Cymru.

Director of Legal Aid Casework

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012 ensured that the decision-making process for legal aid applications remained independent from ministers. The role of Director of Legal Aid Casework (DLAC), which was created by the LASPO Act, has responsibility for making decisions on individual applications for legal aid. The LAA’s Chief Executive undertakes this role, in practice delegating decision-making to LAA caseworkers and providers. The LAA Board supports the DLAC to make sure that robust practices are in place to maintain the independence of the decision‑making process. The DLAC publishes a separate annual report setting out how the functions have been carried out over the financial year.

The Public Defender Service

The Public Defender Service (PDS) provides defence, advice and representation for legally aided defendants, in all types of criminal cases from the police station to the higher courts. The PDS has four solicitor offices across England and Wales. PDS advocates conduct cases throughout the country and can be instructed by any solicitor firm or legally aided defendant. The PDS has a client‑centred approach to criminal defence and has developed specialisms in working with vulnerable clients and providing prison law advice. The PDS continues to retain its Lexcel accreditation demonstrating its high standard of technical expertise and client service in criminal law. PDS lawyers share their experience of the criminal justice system to inform related policy and change initiatives. The PDS continues to embrace digital solutions to represent clients virtually, alongside advising and representing in person.

Transformation and change

We continue to work to modernise our digital infrastructure and reduce reliance on outdated systems.

We have continued to develop our new service for processing applications, Apply for Criminal Legal Aid. This new service for criminal legal aid applications was launched in July 2023 to a limited number of legal aid providers. 100% of providers have since been onboarded to the new service and over 4,200 applications have successfully come through the service so far. We expect the service to be able to accept all criminal legal aid applications by September 2024.

We continue to invest in the Apply for Civil Legal aid service. 140 providers are now using it to submit applications in domestic abuse and section 8 cases and over 28,000 applications have successfully come through the new service so far. We look forward to continuing to develop capabilities to allow special Children Act 1989 applications through the service, as well as onboarding more firms to process applications through the service.

The ‘Check if your client qualifies’ (CCQ) tool launched in public beta in August 2023. This is a new eligibility tool for all legal aid providers, to support them in assessing client eligibility for civil legal aid in both controlled and certificated work. We have continued to work closely with HMCTS to support the rollout of the Common Platform, which is now available in 100% of Magistrates’ courts and Crown Courts in England and Wales. More than 255,000 applications and more than 165,000 bills have been processed so far as a result of our connection with the new platform.

We have continued to implement a number of legal aid policy changes during 2023-24, including:

• Progress has continued on the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR), including through the established Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board. A new fixed fee has been implemented for cases where pre-recorded cross-examination of a witness takes place under section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, as well as a fixed fee for additional case preparation in cracked and trial matters.
• MTR phase 1 Statutory Instrument was laid in parliament on 4 July 2023. Changes came into force in August and September 2023. The means test was removed for applicants under 18 applying for civil legal representation, criminal advice and advocacy assistance; legal representation for parents of children facing withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment proceedings; and legal help for inquests involving a possible breach of European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) rights or significant wider public interest.

Next year, we will continue to engage proactively with providers to ensure we support them in using new services and consider their feedback when developing products. We will continue to work closely with MOJ, using our knowledge and insight to help deliver policy changes in the justice system.

Performance Analysis

Our year in focus

In our eleventh year as an executive agency we have continued to deliver service and process improvements, positively impacting on timeliness and accuracy of decisions and payments. This was achieved while continuing to deliver strong performance against our Strategic Objectives and operational targets.

Performance against our Strategic Objectives in 2023-24

The commitments associated with our Strategic Objectives have been monitored through the LAA’s performance management framework, which includes Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that measure significant elements of our day-to-day work.

The performance management framework also measures key milestones in relation to the delivery of the LAA 2023-24 Business Plan commitments. We published an updated LAA Strategy in February 2023 supporting delivery of our objectives:

• user-centred
• right decisions, first time
• simplified and sustainable
• a responsive, diverse, learning organisation

Throughout the year the results were reported to, and scrutinised by, the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), the LAA Board and the MOJ Executive Committee.

Strategic Objective 1 Deliver access to justice through legal aid services that meet the needs of our users

KPI: Service Delivery

Milestones (for details of milestones in full please see page 20)

• Ensure all service targets for 2023-24 are met
• Policy reforms for implementation in 2023‑24 are delivered
• Our PDS will provide access to justice for clients through continual coverage of services that meet their needs
• Run tenders to secure criminal and civil legal aid providers and consult on contract changes to support the ongoing provision of legal aid services

Strategic Objective 2 Modernise our services, delivering value for money for taxpayers

KPI: Accuracy and accountability

Milestones (for details of milestones in full please see pages 22-23)

• Continue delivery of new Apply service for both Civil and Crime Apply
• We will provide operational guidance to help with:
  • Phase 2 of the government’s response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR)
  • The Review of Civil Legal Aid (RoCLA)
  • Check if your client qualifies (CCQ) –our new service for checking whether clients qualify for legal aid will be released to all providers
  • MTR – we will implement phase 1 and prepare for implementation of further phases
  • Introduce a data toolkit to build staff capability and confidence in working with data

Strategic Objective 3 Become a truly diverse and inclusive employer of choice

KPI: Financial Management

Milestones (for details of milestones in full please see page 26)

• Refresh and continue to deliver our Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Action Plan
• Improve and update our approach to change
• Enhance the capability of our people

Strategic Objective 1 Deliver access to justice through legal aid services that meet the needs of our users

KPI: for applications from our clients. This year four of our six performance measures were met and exceeded

• 85% of applications for civil legal aid (end‑to‑end) within 20 working days. 93% this year. Maintaining the 93% in 2022-23 (94% in 2021-22).
• 90% of applications for criminal legal aid within 2 working days. 100% this year. Maintaining the 100% delivered in 2022-23 (100% in 2021-22).
• 80% of applications for civil amendments (excluding exceptional and complex cases) processed end‑to‑end in 20 working days. 88% this year. An increase on 86% in 2022-23 (86% in 2021‑22).
• 80% of exceptional and complex cases applications in 25 working days. 79% this year. Maintaining the 79% in 2022-23 (82% in 2021-22).
• 85% of applications for exceptional case funding in 25 working days. 81% this year. A decrease on 83% in 2022-23 (85% in 2021‑22).
• 90% of civil application appeals (excluding exceptional and complex cases) that do not need an external adjudicator to be processed within 20 working days. 90% this year. A decrease on 92% in 2022-23 (90% in 2021‑22).

KPI: for payments to our providers. Both performance measures were met and exceeded

• 95% of complete, accurate, eligible bills paid within 20 working days (monies received in account by provider). 99% this year. Maintaining the 99% delivered in 2022-23 (99% in 2021-22).
• 95% of civil billing appeals that do not need an external adjudicator to be processed within 20 working days. 100% this year. Maintaining the 100% delivered in 2022-23, the year this measure was introduced.

KPI: for telephone services. Our three measures were met and exceeded

• 75% of crime calls to our customer services unit answered within five minutes. 87% this year. A decrease on 91% delivered in 2022-23 (92% in 2021-22).
• 75% of civil calls to our customer services unit answered within five minutes. 85% this year. An increase on 82% delivered in 2022‑23 (83% in 2021-22).
• 90% of duty solicitor calls offered to the PDS to be accepted. 98% this year. A decrease on the 99% delivered in 2022-23 (99% in 2021-22).

KPI: for correspondence. Six of our seven measures were met and exceeded

• 90% of first tier (initial) complaints within 20 working days. 100% this year. An increase on 99% delivered in 2022‑23 (99% in 2021-22).
• 90% of second tier (unresolved at first tier) complaints within 20 working days. 99% this year. Maintaining the 99% delivered in 2022-23 (100% in 2021-22).
• 90% of MP correspondence within 20 working days. 100% this year. Maintaining the 100% delivered in 2022-23 (100% in 2021-22).
• 100% of Freedom of Information Act requests within 20 working days. 100% this year. Maintaining the 100% delivered in 2022-23 (100% in 2021-22).
• 100% of Internal Review requests within 20 working days. 100% this year. Maintaining the 100% delivered in 2022-23 (100% in 2021-22).
• 100% of Data Protection Act 2018 requests within 30 calendar days. 99% this year. Maintaining the 99% delivered in 2022-23 (99% in 2021-22).
• 90% of Parliamentary Questions (PQ) responded to within 48 hours (named day PQs within 24 hours). 100% this year. Maintaining the 100% delivered in 2022-23 (this was introduced as a published measure in 2022-23).

Milestones	Were the milestones met?
Ensure all service targets for 2023‑24 are met to support the effective operation of the justice system.	Five of our seven service based key performance indicators were met for 2023‑24.
Policy reforms for implementation in 2023‑24 are delivered through revised business processes and digital development ensuring continued, effective delivery of all legal aid services.	Met. Process and digital change required to allow policy changes delivered or planned for, during 2023-24. This included Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) and MTR phase 1 work.
Our PDS will provide access to justice for clients through continual coverage of services that meet their needs.	Met. We continue to deliver a full range of quality services within the criminal defence market, from advice and representation at the police station and magistrates’ courts through to advocacy in the higher courts.
Run tenders to secure criminal and civil legal aid providers and consult on contract changes to support the provision of legal aid funded services including: • 2018 Standard Civil Contract extension • Start tender activity for 2024 standard civil contracts • Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service • Asylum and immigration services	Met. The Standard Civil Contract 2018 was extended to the end of August 2024. New providers were able to bid and existing providers could bid to expand their offer as well as confirming their intention to maintain their current services. The tender for the Standard Civil Contract 2024 began in September 2023. It included a provision to offer opportunities at regular intervals for new entrants to tender to deliver services under the 2024 Contract and for existing Providers to tender for additional work in categories of law or from additional offices. The aim was to remove unnecessary barriers to entry. This was used for the first time in March 2024 when an additional Civil 2024 procurement was opened for all categories of law including Immigration and Asylum and the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service. Contract changes to support the provision of legal advice to those subject to the Illegal Migration Act were implemented including remote provision of advice under the Detained Duty Advice Scheme.

Strategic Objective 2 Modernise our services, delivering value for money for taxpayers

KPI: accuracy and accountability.

• Minimise our net error rate, ensuring it remains below 1%. 0.68% this year. A decrease in error compared to 0.96% in 2022-23 (0.77% in 2021-22).

KPI: financial management

• Deliver our services within our agreed legal aid Admin spend.
• Monitor our legal aid Fund spend to inform future planning and engagement with HM Treasury.

KPI: modernising and transforming our services. Continued delivery of our new digital crime and civil services

• 20% of crime applications submitted are made through Apply by year end. 6.4% this year. Although this target was missed, by year end 68% of providers were onboarded to the Crime Apply service and functionality within the service increased to allow 58% of applications to be submitted.
• 32% of civil applications submitted are made through Apply by year end. 11.3% this year. This is the percentage of civil applications that were made through Apply at November 2023. Civil Apply was turned off between December and April 2024.

Milestones	Were the milestones met?
Continued delivery of new Apply service: • Civil Apply – processing of civil legal aid applications will be expanded to further areas of law, special Childrens Act 1989, Public Law and Housing. • Crime Apply – replacement for CRM14 and CRM15 eForms begins testing with a small group of providers and caseworkers in summer 2023 with extra features to be added by early 2024.	Not met. Civil Apply. Special Children Act 1989 nor further matter types have been released due to delays caused by: • Linked case functionality required for special Children Act 1989 and other matter types. Development of this functionality was complex and prevented special Children Act 1989 from being delivered as planned. • Civil Apply digital team were directed to prioritise addressing the issues that caused the service to be paused in early December 2023. • Digital resource for Civil Apply reduced by 50% in December 2023 to support priority work for the development of Crime Apply. Met. Crime Apply. The Crime Apply service was tested with a small group of providers in Summer of 2023. At year end, 68% of providers have been onboarded to the Crime Apply service and functionality increased to 58%. On track for 100% of providers onboarded by end of April 2024 and 100% functionality by end of July 2024.
We will provide operational guidance to help with: • phase 2 of the government’s response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) focused on fee scheme and billing system reform • the Review of Civil Legal Aid (RoCLA)	Met. Fee scheme changes implemented for CLAIR. The LAA has shared operational perspectives, data and intelligence with MOJ officials as part of the research and analysis stage of RoCLA.
Check if your client qualifies (CCQ) – our new service for checking whether clients qualify for legal aid will be released to all providers.	Met. Our new CCQ tool for civil legal aid was released in August 2023, making it easier for legal aid providers to assess eligibility for legal aid.
MTR – we will implement phase 1 and prepare for implementation of further phases.	Met. Phase 1 MTR changes for criminal and civil legal aid went live in August 2023.
Introduce a data toolkit to build staff capability and confidence in working with data by July 2023.	Met. The data toolkit to support Contract Managers was introduced by July 2023. It has been reviewed and a Case Management toolkit is now in development. This work complements the ‘One Big Thing’ initiative for 2023 focused on data skills in the Civil Service.

Strategic Objective 3 Become a truly diverse and inclusive employer of choice

KPI: supporting our people to be productive and engaged

• Monitor our average working days lost through sickness at 7.0 working days per year or less. 5.2 working days this year, which is less than 6.9 in 2022-23 (6.9 for 2021-22) (the figure is based on the previous rolling 12-month period).
• Increase the percentage of people who are able to access the right learning and development opportunities when they need to. 80% of responses were positive in 2023, an increase of one percentage point on 2022. Increase the percentage of people who consider that learning and development activities they have completed in their organisation are helping them develop their career. 59% of responses were positive, an increase of three percentage points on 2022.

KPI: zero tolerance to bullying and harassment

• Reduce the number of our people who answer ‘prefer not to say’ (PNTS) to the bullying and harassment question in the annual People Survey. The number of staff who answered PNTS has remained at 4% (4% in 2022).
• Increase the number of people who report bullying and harassment having said they have experienced it. In the 2023 People Survey 4% of people said they had experienced bullying and harassment, a decrease of two percentage points on 2022. 50% (58% in 2022) of people who said they had experienced bullying and harassment went on to formally report it. This means that reporting of bullying and harassment has decreased and those who PNTS whether they reported it has increased to 16% (7% in 2022).
• Increase the number of our people who feel that their bullying and harassment report was dealt with effectively. This has decreased by 14 percentage points to 21%. However, PNTS responses, those who felt their bullying and harassment report was not dealt with effectively increased to 21%.
• Decrease the amount of our people who feel the culture in their area allows this behaviour to continue. This has remained the same at 50%. The percentage of PNTS has decreased from 26% in 2022 to 24% in 2023.

KPI: representative of the people we serve

• Increase the level of our ethnicity and disability declaration reporting each year by reducing the percentage of staff with no positive declaration, from 14% to 10% during the year. 16% of our staff chose not to declare their ethnicity and 18% chose not to declare their disability characteristics. The level of staff not making declarations has increased and we have not met our targets.
• 50/50 split between male and female staff across the LAA with further analysis by grade to drive further equality where needed. 37% of our staff are male and 63% of our staff are female.
• 14% or above of our people declared as being from a diverse ethnic minority across the LAA with further analysis by grade to drive further equality where needed. 16.6% of our staff chose to declare as being from a diverse ethnic minority (15.6% in 2022-23).
• 16% or above of our people declared as having a disability across the LAA with further analysis by grade to drive further equality where needed. 19.4% of our staff have declared as having a disability (17.8% in 2022-23).

Milestones	Were the milestones met?
Refresh and continue to deliver our ‘Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Action Plan’. This involves delivering training to all our people and linking in with the MOJ Professional Behaviours Unit to: • raise awareness of their offer • improve understanding of the support available	Met. We have developed Line Managers training and Bystanders training and begun the delivery to our teams. We will continue this roll-out during 2024-25.
Improve and update our approach to change to: • involve our people in key decisions through strong, visible leadership • deliver opportunities to learn more about change and understand its impacts	Met. We successfully rolled out Let’s Talk About staff engagement sessions focused on change. We saw an improvement in our annual People Survey scores for change. We have delivered learning to enhance change skills across the teams and will continue to commit to this development during 2024‑25.
Enhance the capability of our people, ensuring clear career pathways and a comprehensive offer to ensure we are fit for the future through delivery of our Capability and Career Commitments.	Met. We provide a comprehensive learning offer to our staff, including the newly launched Capability Unlocked Programme. We also offer development programmes to enable better representation across the staff grades including our newly introduced Rising Together Programme. We will focus on supporting professional development and talent management in 2024-25.

Risk position

Risk position at the end of Q4 2023-24 and as we look to the future.

Further insight into our risk profile can be found in our governance section, pages 42-63.

Figure 1. Risk position for 2023-24

Financial management commentary

This section provides commentary on our performance during the past year and supports the financial statements. The financial statements are set out from pages 89-134. Note 2 to the financial statements on page 108 details the net operating costs for each of the segments below and notes 3-5 set out expenditure and income in detail. Figure 2 shows the largest movements, comparing 2023-24 to 2022-23, in legal aid spend by scheme.

Figure 2. Legal Aid Agency net expenditure, £2.3 billion. An increase of £218 million compared to previous year

Civil Representation £841.7 million (£897.6 million in 2022-23). Decreased by 6.2% driven primarily by a reduction in spend associated with public family cases in the Family Court

Crime Higher £867.3 million (£644 million in 2022-23). Increased by 34% driven by increased case volumes and durations and a skew towards more complex, and therefore more expensive, court disposals

Crime Lower £306.5 million (£272.7 million in 2022-23). Increased by 12.4% due to increased volumes of work in the Magistrates’ Court and for police station attendance

Legal Help £124.5 million (£104.3 million in 2022-23). Increased by 19.4% driven by increasing amounts of work in the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal

Administration: £89.9 million (£89.7 million in 2022-23). Increased by 0.2% driven by increases in staff costs offset by reductions in recharges for digital technology

Central Funds £56.2 million (£59.7 million in 2022-23). Decreased by 5.9% due to a reduction in spend associated with private prosecutions and cross examination of vulnerable witnesses

Significant items in the LAA’s Statement of Financial Position

Provision for liabilities and other charges

This is for work that has been completed by solicitors, barristers and advice agencies but has not yet been billed. The value of this work in progress is estimated by taking the number of cases that have been reported as started and estimating the activity that has taken place using historical profiles of case costs and durations for each individual scheme of legal aid. The majority of the remaining liabilities of the LAA are for bills received but not yet processed, which are treated as trade payables, and any unpaid work reported in Payment on Account (POA) claims, which are treated as accruals.

Trade and other receivables

This includes money due from legal aid providers and clients who have received legal aid, with the majority being due under a statutory charge. Statutory charges arise when legally aided clients successfully gain or retain an asset as a result of the legal assistance they receive. In these circumstances the client must repay the cost of their legal aid. If the client has insufficient disposable assets to repay the legal aid, the LAA gains security over the debt by registering a formal charge over the relevant asset. The Lord Chancellor is entitled to defer enforcement of this charge and to accrue interest against this debt at 8% simple interest until such time that the claimant is able to repay the debt. The debt will either be recovered when the asset is sold, or before if the client has the means to repay it sooner. Clients are encouraged to repay the debt as soon as they are able to minimise interest charges.

Sustainability report

We are committed to creating a sustainable, effective and efficient estate that provides value for money for the taxpayer, reduces our environmental impact and allows transformation of the way civil servants work. We recognise that sustainability is a key enabler for the MOJ to contribute to the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs).

Our strategy for sustainability focuses on:

The sustainable operations strategy sets out the MOJ’s aims and objectives for improving the sustainability of its estate and operations, in line with the GGCs. It links to various other strategies covering carbon, water, waste (circular economy), nature and biodiversity, single-use plastics and sustainable procurement.

Environmental awareness

MOJ has begun engaging Arm’s Length Bodies (ALB) in a structured manner on greening government, through the ALB Centre of Excellence Communications Forum. In addition, the MOJ’s Climate Change and Sustainability Unit (CCSU) also offers support by way of technical subject matter experts in all areas covered by the GGCs (such as waste, water, net zero carbon) and associated strategies and policies.

Waste minimisation and recycling are well-practised within our day‑to‑day operations. We also promote responsible procurement and waste management practices. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) provides details of Government Buying Standards for a range of products. As part of all tendering activity where they apply, the requirements of the Government Buying Standards are mandated by us.

Climate change awareness

The MOJ’s CCSU continues to manage and review high-risk buildings and sites. This highlights premises susceptible to the effects of climate change, such as temperature, flooding and other adverse climatic conditions. The climate change risk assessments will allow us to plan for greater operational resilience to extreme events and long-term changes in climate.

Digitisation

The vast majority of our data, files and case evidence is already handled digitally. We are continuing to further reduce our reliance on paper, by offering improved collaboration tools for staff to allow more efficient, flexible working. In addition, we are looking at long-term requirements around the need for physical letters and court documents that will soon become more detailed and reportable.

Environmental sustainability reporting

Our progress against the 2025 GGCs is outlined in this table. The 2022-23 non-financial indicators have been restated to reflect the full financial year up to March 2023. The data below shows our present position for 2023-24 against a 2017-18 baseline, using calendar year data available January 2023 to December 2023. The non-financial data for 2017-18 in the tables below are based on the updated baseline data approved by DEFRA. The 2022‑23 non-financial data have been restated to show the full financial year up to March 2023.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Table 1. Financial and non-financial indicators of greenhouse gas emissions against Scopes 1-3 for each year 2017-18 to 2023-24

Energy[footnote 1]		2023-24	2022-23 restated	2021-22	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18 restated
Non-financial indicators (tCO2e)	Gas – Scope 1 non-renewable energy	72	79	125	79	135	85	95
	Electricity – Scope 2 non-renewable energy	173	175	168	204	259	107	531
	Electricity – Scope 2 renewable energy	–	–	–	–	5	77	–
	Official business travel emissions – Scope 3	4	15	31	74	147	174	281
	Total	249	269	324	357	546	443	907
Non-financial indicators(MWh)	Gas – Scope 1 non-renewable energy	397	434	682	430	428	463	514
	Electricity – Scope 2 non-renewable energy	793	830	791	785	931	348	1,382
	Electricity – Scope 2 renewable energy[footnote 2]	–	–	–	–	18	252	–
	Total	1,190	1,264	1,473	1215	1,377	1,063	1,896
Financial indicators(£000)	Gross expenditure on energy	307	238	226	162	278	108	210
	Expenditure on official business travel (UK only)	472	429	152	45	638	642	662
	Total	779	667	378	207	916	750	872

Electricity and gas usage decreased compared with last year. Emissions are calculated using the DEFRA factors for the relevant period.

Travel

Table 2. Travel output information for each year 2017-18 to 2023-24

Travel[footnote 3]		2023-24	2022-23 restated	2021-22	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18 restated
Output information (km 000)	Motor vehicle	309	314	–	324	437	415	464
	Rail	96	315	710	411	1,623	2,131	3,934
	Flight	4	23	1	11	18	33	111
	Total	409	652	711	746	2,078	2,579	4,509
Output information (tCO2e)	Motor vehicle	52	54	–	56	77	75	85
	Rail	3	11	25	17	67	94	184
	Flight	1	3	–	–	2	5	13
	Total	56	68	25	73	146	174	282

Overall travel emissions have decreased 80% from the baseline year 2017-18.

Travel output for 2023-24 to 56 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) decreased by 18%

Finite resource consumption

Table 3. Water consumption and supply costs for each year 2017-18 to 2023-24

Water [footnote 4]		2023-24	2022-23	2021-22	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18 restated
Non-financial information (cubic metres)	Water consumption	1,895	811	866	1,762	1,891	3,496	14,987
Financial information (£000)	Water supply costs	14	24	21	24	22	5	21

Note, the baseline 2017-18 water consumption data includes total LAA water usage and has no information on site level to explain significant decrease in usage.

Water usage during 2023-24 is higher than 2022-23.

Paper

Table 4. Quantity of paper purchased for each year 2017-18 to 2023-24

Paper		2023-24	2022-23 restated	2021-22	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18 restated
Non-financial information (A4 reams)	Paper purchased	671	756	460	515	2,679	3,226	3,849

Our consumption of paper has shown a decrease this year (note, all shown as reams as per GGCs target).

Waste minimisation and management

Waste disposal for 2023-24 has decreased by 42% to 143m3

Table 5. Waste disposal for each year 2017-18 to 2023-24

Waste		2023-24	2022-23 restated	2021-22	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18 restated
Non-financial information (cubic metres)	Waste sent to landfill	2	6	–	–	1	162	148
	Waste incinerated for energy recovery	10	8	16	6	7	–	–
	Waste composted	0.4	1	2	1	2	–	–
	Waste recycled/reused	131	233	46	70	121	691	840
	Total	143.4	248	64	77	131	853	998
Financial information (£000)	Total	14	24	64	66	41	26	27

We continue to divert our waste from landfill. Further progress in digital working and paper reduction should help to reduce this waste stream in the future.

Going forward

Our sustainability strategy is to continue operating closely with the MOJ’s CCSU towards the GGCs. Together, we will continue to:

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Improve our waste management
• Further reduce water consumption
• Buy more sustainable and efficient products and services

The aim of achieving the best long-term minimum environmental impact. Our Sustainability Team and Facilities Management continue to find ways for us to reduce our carbon footprint through facilities upgrades.

We continue to explore opportunities offered by improved ways of working, through digital working and the better use of technology.

We will explore further estates improvements within the LAA location strategy and explore further opportunities to share space with other government departments. This will further reduce our accommodation energy needs.

We are committed to creating a sustainable, effective and efficient estate that provides value for money for the taxpayer, reduces our environmental impact and enables transformation.

Signed for and on behalf of the Legal Aid Agency

Jane Harbottle

Chief Executive and Accounting Officer

Legal Aid Agency

Task Force on Climate Related Disclosures (TCFD)

The climate-related financial disclosure within this Annual Report and Accounts is consistent with HM Treasury’s UK public sector TCFD-aligned disclosure guidance. In line with the central government timetable, this Annual Report and Accounts complies with the TCFD recommended disclosures around:

• governance – recommended disclosures Board’s oversight and management’s role
• metrics and targets – recommended disclosure emissions reporting.

Footnotes

1. Energy data for 2023-24 reporting year includes information from the following sites only: Brighton, Jarrow, Leeds, London (102 Petty France) and Swansea.↩

2. Previous reports showed values for renewable energy that referred to grid-supplied green tariff. This does not align with GGCs reporting, which makes no allowance for green tariffs in the carbon reporting. The table has therefore been updated to show on-site generated renewable energy, with the original figures now merged with the electric figures.↩

3. We now have access to grey fleet (motor vehicle) data through the Single Operating Platform (SOP) HR system. We have restated 2022-23 travel data accordingly. ↩

4. Water data for 2023-24 reporting year includes information from the following sites only: Jarrow and London (102 Petty France). Water data across 2023-24 and 2022-23 had issues with series of estimated and actual billing, these figures were calculated by averaging the reconciliation figures for the period. ↩