7. What submissions has the Welsh Government made to the House of Commons inquiry into legal aid, given concerns regarding difficulties in accessing legal aid during the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ55653

The Government's submission to the inquiry will be to highlight to the House of Commons Justice Committee's attention the Commission on Justice in Wales report. The commission described a dire situation, which we are likely to discover will have deteriorated further during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I thank the Counsel General. It's been widely reported that, during COVID-19 lockdowns, we've seen an increase in cases of domestic abuse. Legal aid is still available for divorce cases where there has been domestic abuse, because the UK Government recognises that often, in order to make a safe, clean break from their abuser, a person will need to go to court for a divorce, a financial settlement, or, most importantly, to sort out appropriate arrangements over access to children.

When two-child benefit caps were introduced, Labour made great play of the fact that women with a third child born from rape may have to prove that they were raped or answer very personal questions if they needed to be exempted from the benefit cap. Labour felt the process may stop women from claiming, and, for those who did, the questioning may cause them distress. The same could apply, though, to people who have suffered abuse who need legal aid to get a much-needed divorce. They may feel a misplaced embarrassment about suffering the abuse. They may feel they have to prove it took place. They may not have reported it to the police, and be concerned that raising such allegations may inflame the situation again, something they live in fear of.

Now I appreciate that the issue of legal aid is not devolved, but what is devolved is your Government's ability to help all survivors of domestic abuse, particularly those who feel too afraid to say what's happened to them. For that reason, would you please consider trying to find the budget to fund representation in divorce cases? Means testing any help would be understandable, but please don't make abused people have to flag up their status, because many of them won't, and they and their children will continue to suffer as a consequence.

Well, the Member makes a series of very important points, and I appreciate the way in which she is raising this extremely sensitive matter. A well-designed legal aid scheme would address the challenges that the Member raises in her question. We are a long way away from that as a consequence of cuts in the budget over the last number of years at a UK Government level. We would wish to be in a position, in Wales, where those matters were in our hands, so that we could design a system that tackled precisely the sorts of challenges that Michelle Brown raises in her question. She will know that where we have been able to intervene in providing advice services and support for domestic violence, we have been able to do that. But the sorts of interventions that she is describing necessarily require very significant intervention, and absolutely that is why if the UK Government wishes, as it were, to continue with these powers being reserved, it is incumbent on them to provide the funding to deliver the levels of protection that individuals in those circumstances need. But I would refer her to the document that we published yesterday, which recognises that over the course of the last few months the incidence of domestic violence has increased, and we will be looking to further support domestic violence services within the resources that we have, as was flagged in the document yesterday.

Finally, question 8, Helen Mary Jones.