In figures: the number of solicitors pulling out of providing legal aid

The Herald revealed in September that 439 solicitors had stopped participating in Scotland's legal aid scheme from 2021 to 2023 prompting warnings from opposition politicians that vulnerable groups could be left without access to justice.

Figures from the Scottish Legal Aid Board showed there were now no private firms or solicitors on court duty plans in Kirkwall or Lochmaddy.

Towns including Banff, Fort William, Lanark, Lerwick, Lochgilphead, Portree and Wick have just one private solicitor, respectively, on a court duty plan.

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There are also no private firms or solicitors on police duty in Aberdeen, Banff, Falkirk, Jedburgh, Kirkwall, Livingston, Lochmaddy and Selkirk.

The Lib Dems's justice spokesman Liam McArthur warned that small towns and rural communities could in particular become “legal aid deserts”.

He said: "Over recent years there has been a marked drop in the availability of criminal legal aid. Those who continue to undertake legal aid work are having to cover an ever-larger area.

"All of this has the potential to harm some of the most vulnerable members of our communities.

"I am extremely concerned by the figures which suggest there are no or every few private solicitors taking part in duty schemes in rural and island areas."

Why are solicitors withdrawing from offering legal aid?

The Law Society of Scotland said the legal aid shortages spreading across the country is because of funding constraints facing solicitors.

In April, the organisation said it had "lost confidence" in the scheme following a lack of progress in developing a review mechanism for fees.

Ministers were told many solicitors were ceasing legal aid work because the rates of pay offered failed to provide the "financial return necessary to justify the work involved".

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Ian Moir, who is co-convener of the Law Society of Scotland's legal aid committee, warned the crisis will only worsen without a funding plan.

Mr Moir, who is also a legal aid practitioner with Moir and Sweeney in Glasgow, said: "These figures from the Scottish Legal Aid Board are sadly no surprise to solicitors doing legal aid work across Scotland.

"They reflect a daily reality where people, many of them among the most vulnerable in our communities, can't get the legal representation they need."

Mr Moir said the age profile of legal aid solicitors shows the downward trend will continue and even accelerate as many lawyers providing legal aid retire and younger lawyers opt to work in different specialisms of the profession.

Solicitors took industrial action in 2022 in a dispute over legal aid fees, with the Scottish Government stepping in with an £11 million package.

A second campaign of industrial action began in June over legal aid, with around 800 defence lawyers boycotting cases prosecuted under new domestic abuse legislation.

What is the Scottish Government doing about it?

Community justice minister Siobhain Brown told Parliament last month the "Scottish Government has "taken significant steps" to support legal aid providers, including increasing legal aid fees by more than 25% since 2019 and providing £1 million of funding to establish 40 traineeships in legal aid firms during 2021.

Ms Brown told Holyrood: "The number of legal aid solicitors can fluctuate for a variety of reasons, and the issue of solicitor availability is being explored by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, which is undertaking comprehensive analysis that will look in detail at legal aid activity at a geographical and subject matter level.

"We will continue to work with the legal profession and others to identify measures to improve and reform Scotland’s legal aid system."

She also pointed to the Scottish Government's “Vision for Justice in Scotland” a three-year delivery plan to reform the legal aid system and "shape future legislative proposals".

She said: "Officials will take part in a series of stakeholder engagement sessions on legal aid reform in the coming months. The Scottish Government is liaising with the Law Society of Scotland to evaluate the traineeship system that we funded a year or two ago."

Is the Scottish Government doing enough to address the problem?

Critics say it is not.

Pointing to the data revealed by The Herald, Ms Dowey told Holyrood: "Entire towns and cities are now lacking solicitors on police station or court duty. That has raised concerns, in particular from the Law Society of Scotland, about the creation of legal aid deserts in rural communities."

She pressed the minister on what "immediate action" was being taken.

"Given that those shortages could leave vulnerable people without access to justice, what immediate action will the Scottish Government take to prevent rural communities from becoming legal aid deserts?" she said.

Ms Brown responded that she was "committed to working with the legal profession to find solutions to bring forward legal aid reform."

Scottish Labour's justice spokesman Pauline McNeill has similar concerns and pressed Ms Brown on details of what the government is doing in the short term to retain defence solicitors and moves to boost more trainee posts.

Ms McNeill has called for the government to consider "an annual uprating" of legal aid fees to "end the constant battle with the legal aid profession".

She told Holyrood: "Notwithstanding what the Government has done already, a regular increase would at least help to retain some of that profession."

While Mr McArthur has pressed Ms Brown on what if any "targeted action" is being done to address the immediate problems where there are no legal aid solicitors.

"In Orkney, there is now no duty solicitor working on court and police station duty plans..What specific targeted steps is the Government taking to ensure that those who live in communities such as the one that I represent have proper and equitable access to justice?"

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Ms Brown acknowledged the risk of communities being "legal aid deserts" though did not appear to outline any immediate action to address the lack of legal aid solicitors in towns and communities where there are currently none.

"The Scottish Legal Aid Board is doing comprehensive analysis to look at the detail of legal aid activity at a geographical and subject matter level and to see how it can be improved," she said.

"The legal aid system is a national one and it is flexible enough to allow services to be delivered by solicitors around the country to people in other parts of the country. There are numerous ways in which access to solicitors can be facilitated remotely, and funding is available to allow solicitors to travel to rural and remote parts of the country.

"However, as I have said before, the Scottish Government cannot compel private solicitors to take on work."