Current status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has reportedly been a 24% decrease in solicitors registered for children's legal aid since 2020, what analysis it is undertaking to understand any issues caused by this, and what action it will take to address those issues, including reversing the reported decrease in numbers.
The Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010 gave the Scottish Legal Aid Board the function of monitoring the availability and accessibility of legal services in Scotland, and it has arrangements in place to monitor legal services. However, any assessment of registered solicitor numbers does not offer an accurate measure of the provision or supply of legal aid. This is because there is a large number of registered solicitors who are inactive, so the reduction in the number of registered solicitors, doesn’t necessarily equate to the same size of reduction in active solicitors. Therefore, registered solicitor numbers should not be viewed in the same context as active solicitors. The relevant measure of supply is active solicitors.
However, fluctuations in the numbers of Children’s solicitors occur for various reasons, these are:
Children’s legal assistance volumes are directly related to the numbers of children’s hearings taking place. The volume of hearings is in turn related to the number of Compulsory Supervision Orders (CSOs) being made or reviewed.
There are fewer Compulsory Supervision Orders and therefore less business for solicitors in this field.
At 31 March 2024, 6,490 children were subject to Compulsory Supervision Orders. In 2019-20, the number was 8,875 – a reduction of 27%.
The number of children subject to Compulsory Supervision Orders has decreased for a fourteenth consecutive year.
The Scottish Government recognises that reform is needed to the legal aid system, which is why we are currently developing a legal aid action plan for reform which will be published in early 2025.