Ministers are proposing simpler applications, greater freedom for accredited solicitors and stronger powers to direct services towards areas where private firms are unavailable. The consultation does not immediately widen eligibility or say how many additional practitioners would be secured in places already described as legal aid deserts.
A person in Scotland can satisfy the financial and legal tests for public funding and still be unable to find a solicitor willing or available to take the case.
That gap between qualifying for legal aid and obtaining legal help is the central problem behind a new Scottish Government consultation published on Tuesday.
Ministers are seeking views on a Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill intended to modernise the statutory framework currently governed by the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986. The consultation closes on 13 October and is expected to inform legislation during the first year of the current parliamentary session.
Legal aid pays for advice or representation when an individual cannot reasonably afford a solicitor. It covers criminal defence and civil matters including family disputes, housing, debt, immigration and mental health proceedings.
Most publicly funded legal work is delivered through the judicare system. A person must first find a private solicitor prepared to accept the case. The solicitor then assesses eligibility or applies to the Scottish Legal Aid Board, depending on the assistance required.
Firms remain free to decide which clients, subjects and geographical areas they will serve. The Legal Aid Board administers the fund but cannot compel a registered solicitor to accept a client. Its chief executive has previously said the existing system does not allow the board to secure services where and when they are needed or readily connect people with practitioners who have capacity.
The proposed reforms would retain judicare at the centre of the system while making more strategic use of commissioned services and solicitors employed directly by the Legal Aid Board. Both forms of provision already exist, but currently account for a relatively small share of legal aid work.
Ministers argue that clearer commissioning powers would allow services to be directed towards communities or areas of law where ordinary private provision is failing.
The consultation does not identify which towns or subjects would receive commissioned services, how many solicitors might be employed or what additional budget would be available. The practical value of the new powers will therefore depend on later funding and delivery decisions.
Fewer applications and a higher-trust system
One substantial proposal is to simplify the divisions between advice and assistance, assistance by way of representation and full legal aid.
Clients can currently face different financial assessments, applications and approvals as a case moves from initial advice towards formal proceedings. The government wants cases to follow a more continuous path, reducing repeated checks and delays.
Solicitors could also apply for accreditation under a new high-trust system. Accredited practitioners would be allowed to progress cases with fewer advance approvals from the Legal Aid Board.
Oversight would move towards auditing how solicitors apply the rules rather than checking each decision before work proceeds. Practitioners who did not seek or receive accreditation could continue using the existing application process.
The consultation acknowledges that safeguards would be required where public funding was misused or the rules were applied incorrectly.
Improved data sharing between public bodies is also proposed. Someone receiving a qualifying benefit could be passported into legal aid more easily, reducing the need to prove the same financial circumstances repeatedly.
These changes could make the system quicker to navigate. They would not, by themselves, increase the number of solicitors accepting legal aid work.
Eligibility is not being broadly expanded
The consultation describes improved access, but it does not propose an immediate general expansion of financial eligibility.
For initial civil advice and assistance, the current maximum disposable income is £245 a week, with a disposable-capital limit of £1,716 unless an exemption applies.
Civil legal aid for court proceedings can be available where disposable annual income is no more than £26,239 and disposable capital does not exceed £13,017. Contributions may still be required, and money or property recovered or preserved through a case can sometimes be used to repay legal costs.
Ministers propose clearer and more consistent contribution arrangements. Under the proposed governance system, the Legal Aid Board would report annually on eligibility and contributions, with changes requiring parliamentary approval.
The consultation explicitly says there are no plans to extend non-means-tested legal aid into additional areas through the Bill, citing affordability and the sustainability of the fund.
That is narrower than recommendations made by Holyrood’s previous Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee.
The committee called for higher eligibility thresholds, the removal of financial tests for civil protection orders and some homelessness cases, and consideration of wider non-means-tested support for people affected by domestic abuse. It also asked ministers to reconsider client contributions and clawback where these might deter people from pursuing legitimate cases.
Those recommendations are not ruled out permanently, but they are not promised in the present consultation.
Record spending alongside gaps in service
Scotland spent £169 million on legal assistance in 2024–25, the highest cash total recorded and 12 per cent more than the previous year. Around £142 million was paid to solicitors, advocates and solicitor advocates.
Despite the higher expenditure, the number of grants fell by three per cent to approximately 170,000. Civil grants fell by four per cent and criminal grants by three per cent.
The increase in spending partly reflected fee rises and changes in criminal case management rather than a straightforward increase in the number of people receiving help.
The longer-term figures show the same tension. The number of grants has fallen from about 203,000 in 2017–18 while total expenditure has risen.
National spending therefore coexists with serious shortages in particular places and fields of law.
A Scottish Parliament inquiry found legal aid deserts in both geographical areas and subjects including housing, welfare, employment, immigration and asylum.
Grampian Women’s Aid reported making between 50 and 60 calls to locate one solicitor. The committee also heard of a woman in the Highlands contacting more than 100 lawyers unsuccessfully about a divorce.
In February, Parliament was told that a Law Society survey found 41 per cent of solicitors were either planning to stop legal aid work within two years or were unsure whether they would continue.
The Scottish Government has approved a 13 per cent increase in fees from September. It has also created a £1.5 million traineeship fund intended to support up to 40 places and established an independent group to consider a longer-term system for reviewing fees.
Those measures are intended to improve recruitment and retention. Their effect will depend on whether firms regard legal aid work as financially and professionally sustainable over time.
Rural provision will test the proposal
The planned commissioning powers could be most valuable in the Highlands, islands and rural south, where long travel distances, low population density and a limited number of firms make ordinary provision fragile.
A small number of practitioners may be expected to cover large areas. When one retires, reduces legal aid work or cannot act because of a conflict of interest, clients can be left with few practical alternatives.
The government says existing arrangements can fund solicitors to travel and that Legal Aid Board projects and directly employed services can cover wider areas.
Parliamentary committees have remained unconvinced that this amounts to equal access. One inquiry described it as unacceptable that rural residents had so few practical options and rejected the suggestion that the existing system was generally effective in remote communities.
A future Bill could give the Legal Aid Board stronger powers to identify need, enter funding agreements, employ solicitors and publish strategic delivery plans.
Scottish ministers would set priorities, objectives and resource allocations, while Parliament would approve changes to eligibility and contributions.
That structure will require safeguards. Legal aid is intended to respond to the needs of individual cases. A planned system also directs resources towards identified government and board priorities.
The legislation will need to ensure that commissioning fills gaps without quietly narrowing access elsewhere or leaving less visible areas of law with fewer resources.
The consultation is more substantial than an administrative tidy-up. It proposes machinery capable of directing lawyers and funding towards unmet need, simplifying applications and reducing some of the bureaucracy faced by solicitors and clients.
It does not yet establish where commissioned services would operate, how many additional practitioners would be secured, what the reforms would cost or when people currently making dozens of unsuccessful telephone calls would notice a difference.
The consultation remains open until 13 October 2026.
Sources
https://www.gov.scot/news/legal-aid-consultation/
https://www.gov.scot/publications/legal-aid-reform-consultation/
https://www.slab.org.uk/corporate-information/publications/corporate-information/annual-reports/
