A Case For Enhancing Legal Aid To Persons Of Limited Means

In February 2022’s sitting, I asked the Minister for Law for statistics in relation to legal aid and advice applications over the past 5 years. I noted from his reply that there appears to be a significant downward trend in the number of applications for the years 2020 and 2021 as compared to 2017 to 2019. I also noted that 80% of the applicants who were unsuccessful in applying for legal aid and advice failed the means test; meaning they are assessed to be of sufficient means. These figures are worth studying with a view to see if the Government should loosen the means test criteria so that more people can qualify. I will take up this issue during the Committee of Supply debate for Ministry of Law scheduled in March 2022.

Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Law in the past five years (a) what is the annual number of applications for legal aid that have been received by the Legal Aid Bureau; (b) of these, how many applicants are successful; and © what is the percentage of unsuccessful applicants who do not pass the means test.

Mr K Shanmugam: The Legal Aid Bureau (LAB) provides legal advice, legal assistance and legal aid on civil matters, to Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents with limited means. LAB receives an average of 8,500 applications each year — slightly more than half are for legal advice and assistance, and the remaining for legal aid. Applicants for legal advice or legal assistance have to pass the means test. Applicants for legal aid have to pass both the means test and legal merits test. Unsuccessful applicants may fail the means test or legal merits test, or both.

The information on the applications LAB received between 2017 and 2021 are provided in the table below.