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"The Law Centres Network said: ‘Parliament’s intention in LASPO was that the most vulnerable people should still be able to access legal assistance."

Yes, and this road is paved with these good intentions. But we aren't there yet because this monster is not going to turn around. It's like a supertanker heading at 20 knots towards harbour. It has to be stopped before it can be turned around. It took from the early 90's when the first Franchises were being handed out and driving lawyers out of legal aid until now to create this situation. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. The problem now is systemic and it is a growing epidemic. It may be that there are many counties that still have providers, but one wonders whether the partners in these firms are firmly committed to this kind of work.

All businesses are subject to the laws of economics. You can only get lawyers to work for little money if they don't have more lucrative work. If you want to create a pool of providers of low cost services, you have to let the market sort that out and high overhead firms need to get out of this work leaving solos doing it who have small overheads. Trying to blend heavy overhead High Street practices who Parliament wanted to do this kind of work in a highly regulated, expensive, manner with low pay simply doesn't work.

Parliament may have wanted to protect the most vulnerable by handing over this work to the most privileged and expensive providers but that is a fantasy.