Speaking in the House of Lords in response to a question from Labour’s Lord Bach, Lord Faulks said LASPO had not been the disaster Lord Bach described, but instead it had been ‘necessary to make some sensible and well-directed changes to legal aid’.

A full review would be undertaken within the planned timescale of five years after the implementation of the Act in April 2013.

Later in the debate, in response to questions on the provision of social welfare law services, the minister agreed with the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto that there was a need to ‘develop a strategy that will deliver advice and legal support to help people with everyday problems like personal debt and social welfare issues’.