Justice Committee warns of failing legal aid system amid growing pressures, including in immigration and asylum

In a report published last week, the House of Commons Justice Committee warned that the legal aid system in England and Wales is under increasing strain, with concerns that limited access to legal aid is affecting immigration and asylum cases alongside other areas of law.

You can download the full 80-page report here.

Specifically with regard to immigration and asylum legal aid, the Committee said evidence showed there was a 57% gap in 2023–24 between the number of new asylum claims or appeals by a main applicant in England and Wales and the number of new legal aid matters opened. The report also noted significant regional disparities, with the South West recording fewer than 400 new immigration and asylum legal aid matters during the year.

The Committee said many providers undertaking immigration and asylum legal aid report that the work is financially unsustainable, with legal aid fees often failing to cover the cost of delivering services. It concluded that providers frequently rely on privately funded work or external funding to subsidise their legal aid caseloads in order to remain operational.

While the Government announced an additional £20 million per year for housing and immigration legal aid fees from December 2025, the Committee said targeted fee increases alone are insufficient to address wider sustainability issues across civil legal aid. It added that implementation of some fee uplifts has also been delayed because of ongoing issues with the Legal Aid Agency’s IT systems.

The report noted that the Legal Aid Agency has sought to improve access by expanding remote legal aid provision and creating a national list of providers willing to accept immigration and asylum cases. However, evidence from the Public Law Project cited by the committee found that, on average, only 11% of those providers had capacity to take on new clients.

In addition, the Committee stated: “Remote advice can help extend provision, but it cannot be treated as a complete substitute for local face-to-face services, particularly for digitally excluded or vulnerable clients and for cases involving court proceedings.”

The Committee concluded that the current measures are “too little, too late” to prevent further decline in legal aid provision. Among its recommendations, it called for wider increases to civil legal aid fees, including immigration and asylum work, with future rates subject to regular independent review to help ensure the long-term sustainability of legal aid services.