Social Return on Investment in Legal Aid

In July 2017, the Law Society of Scotland commissioned Rocket Science UK Ltd (Rocket Science) to assess the preventive impacts of Legal Aid spending in the areas of criminal law, housing law and family law. We were asked to conduct a Social Return on Investment (SROI) impact analysis, which measures the financial, economic and social impacts of spending on Legal Aid in those three areas. Legal Aid is provided by the Scottish Government and administered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) to help those who cannot afford to meet the costs of support from a solicitor. In the context of the economic downturn and increased pressure on public services, there has been a debate about the sustainability and efficiency of spending on Legal Aid in Scotland and other jurisdictions. In England and Wales, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 has led to significant cuts to the scope of civil legal aid and there is currently an Independent Strategic Review of Legal Aid under way, examining the future of legal aid in Scotland in the next five to ten years. This debate raises the question of the return from the money spent on Legal Aid or, put differently, what would be lost if money was not spent on Legal Aid. Piecemeal research has been carried out on several aspects of this question in the UK context, much of it focusing on the impacts of cuts to civil legal aid in England and Wales. However, there is no research that assembles these pieces and provides a more general view, and there is very little research about the situation in Scotland. This SROI goes some way towards filling this gap. It focuses on the Scottish context and combines data across housing, family and criminal cases. It identifies beneficiaries and how they benefit from Legal Aid, and also puts a financial value on each benefit. This makes it possible to compare directly spending on Legal Aid with the benefits it brings about, that is, to assess the return on investment in Legal Aid.