The government has no intention of slowing down its support for IT-based innovation in legal services, justice minister Sarah Sackman has said as she formally announced a further £4.5 million for the LawtechUK initiative. The new money - first announced by the lord chancellor in February - will fund the programme until 2029.

LawtechUK was set up in 2019 as an arm of Tech Nation, a government-backed network for startup technology businesses, with £2m of Ministry of Justice funding. Its initial focus was on supporting businesses selling new technologies, mainly harnessing artificial intelligence, to the legal sector. Its second phase, from 2023, had a budget of £4m to focus on technology to fulfil 'unmet legal need'. This phase of the programme was run by Edinburgh-based tech incubator CodeBase and global networking and events organiser Legal Geek.

Announcing the new funding, courts and legal services minister Sarah Sackman noted that UK-founded lawtech companies secured almost £189m in investment last year – up 35% from the year before. 

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'The UK isn’t just keeping pace with the global legal tech revolution - we’re leading it,' she said. 'With 44% of all European lawtech startups calling the UK home, they know Britain is where innovation happens. We have no intention of slowing down, which is why we’re investing £4.5 million to keep the UK at the frontier of legal technology.'  

A competition to award the next stage of funding will be launched in due course, the MoJ said. In the meantime, the existing contractors will continue to run the programme. Beth Fellner, director of Legal Geek, said: 'We are excited about the next phase of the campaign as we look to further develop a culture of innovation within the legal services sector and grow its vital contribution to the UK economy.'

LawtechUK's next announcement is expected to be the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce's final report on tortious liability for harms caused by AI, due for publication before the summer.