To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much and what proportion of the legal aid budget has been spent on terrorism cases in each of the last five years. (320747)

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is unable to identify all legal aid expenditure on terrorism cases as terrorism cases do not have a specific identifying code for all the legal aid schemes. Cases in the Crown Court do not have an identifying code unless they are funded under the Very High Cost Case Scheme (VHCC). Therefore, it is not possible to state what proportion of all legal aid expenditure was attributable to terrorism cases.

Table 1 shows legal aid expenditure during each of the last five years on terrorism cases funded under the VHCC scheme covering cases expected to last 41 days or longer at trial.

Table 2 shows legal aid expenditure during each of the last three years on terrorism cases funded under the magistrates court fee scheme and the police station advice and assistance scheme. The unique code for identifying terrorism cases under the magistrates court fee scheme and the police station advice and assistance scheme was introduced in 2007-08.