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In response to some of the comments.

The research covered benefits, employment, immigration, housing and community care law. Collectively know as social welfare law. While I'd agree benefits law has tended to be the specialism of CABx and other none solicitor organisations, the other areas of law are not. However, due to the combination of scope cuts and the stifling bureaucracy legal aid solicitors are subjected to, the numbers of practitioners undertaking this work is in decline.

In contrast to family law SWL clients are largely invisible as they don't tend to clog up the courts as LIPs- this is not to deny the undoubted crisis in the family courts the cuts to legal aid have caused. This research was a way of highlighting the impact of the damage of the legal aid cuts on the poorest and most vulnerable people, which cannot be dismissed as self interest from lawyers!

It was not the Law Society's idea to poll GPs, but fortunately they saw the sense in funding LAG to do so, as it clearly demonstrates the unforeseen consequences of the government cutting civil legal aid in the way they did.

The research is hard evidence which supports the criticisms that the Public Accounts Committee made this morning about the civil legal aid cuts (see news piece on this). The timing therefore could not be better, but I cannot claim credit for that!