LEGAL aid spending on civil cases in York has fallen by more than half in the last five years.

Legal aid was set up in 1949 to ensure those who could not afford legal advice or representation could still access the justice system in their time of need, but since the financial crash of 2008 the Ministry of Justice has seen its budget reduced by more than 40 per cent, from almost £11bn to £6.3bn, while a further £300m of cuts by 2018-19 were confirmed in October’s budget.

Figures released this week showed the number of providers offering legal aid support in civil cases in the city dropped from 15 to 11 between 2011/2012 and 2017/2018, and the number of claims dropped from 2,087 to 1,160.

In terms of spending, this represented a drop of 54 per cent, from £5,271,763 to £2,390,657.

The amount of legal aid used in criminal cases in York also dropped by almost half a million pounds from £3,411,398 in 2011/2012 to to £2,939,475 in 2017/2018 - a reduction of .

The figures showed the number of legal aid providers remained at nine throughout this period, but the number of claims actually fell by 14 per cent from 6,979 to 5,995.

More widely, across Yorkshire and Humberside, the number of legal aid solicitors available to work for the Crown Prosecution Service in criminal cases dropped by six per cent - from 213 to 201 - while the number of advocates available for defendants has dropped by three per cent - from 379 to 369.

The situation is worse for legal aid solicitors firms available for civil cases across Yorkshire and Humberside, as the number has fallen by a quarter - from 322 to 242 - and not-for-profit organisations offering help in civil cases has dropped by almost half - from 39 to 20, since 2011/2012.