Dear Ministry of Justice,

I request disclosure of the following information pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982.

This request concerns only refugee and protection legal aid matters and related lawyers, and is limited only to the RSU initial stage.

In this request, “active refugee/protection legal aid lawyer” means a legal aid provider / lawyer who, during the relevant reporting period, handled at least 1 refugee and/or protection legal aid matter at the RSU initial stage.

Time period requested:
Please provide the data for the complete financial years 2018/19, 2020/21, 2023/24, and 2024/25, by financial year (from 1 July to 30 June).
If you do not keep the information by financial year, please provide it according to the statistical period you actually use, and state the statistical basis used.

The information requested is as follows:

1. Number of active lawyers and caseload
Please provide for each financial year:
1.1 the number of active refugee/protection legal aid lawyers;
1.2 the median number of RSU initial-stage refugee/protection legal aid matters handled by each active lawyer.

2. Data on checking whether lawyers genuinely reviewed applicant evidence
Please provide the following data for each financial year:
2.1 the number of cases in which you checked, spot-checked, audited, or reviewed the hours claimed by asylum legal aid lawyers for reviewing applicant evidence and supporting documents;
2.2 among the above cases, the number of cases in which, after checking, it was determined that the hours claimed by the lawyer for reviewing applicant evidence and supporting documents needed to be adjusted.

3. Data on whether there was verification with asylum applicants
Please provide the following data for each financial year:
3.1 the number of cases in which you verified, with legally aided asylum applicants, the hours claimed by asylum legal aid lawyers;
3.2 among the above verifications, the number of cases in which it was found that the hours claimed by the lawyer were inconsistent with the applicant’s account.

4. Data relating to legal aid lawyers applying for increased evidence translation/interpreting budget
Please provide the following data for each financial year:
4.1 the number of cases in which legal aid lawyers applied for an increase in the budget for translation/interpreting of evidence and supporting documents;
4.2 among the above applications, the number of cases that were approved;
4.3 the median translation/interpreting cost for evidence and supporting documents across all RSU initial-stage asylum legal aid cases.

Yours faithfully,

nicegoodfaith