The tranche of emails reveal that conversations about cases between the MoJ, the minister’s office, and the LAA appear commonplace, despite the agency supposedly being an independent body.

The government says it “reject[s] entirely the suggestion of political interference”, but BuzzFeed News has scrutinised three recent controversial cases against it that were turned down for legal aid and found:

In a test case against the MoJ brought by a prisoner challenging a ban on prisoners receiving books, official emails seen by BuzzFeed News show legal aid was rejected after a phone call from Chris Grayling’s office and a series of messages between government and the LAA. Despite the LAA saying the case was not strong enough to merit legal aid, the prisoner won in the High Court after the lawyer took it on pro bono — and the law was overturned.

A challenge to the legality of a proposed government contract with the Saudi prison service was granted legal aid and then annulled retrospectively once a letter before claim was received by government. The lawyer bringing the case told BuzzFeed News the retrospective change of mind was unprecedented, outside the rules, and “indicative of political interference behind the scenes”.

Families whose relatives died in the Birmingham bombing were refused legal aid to challenge a ruling that Irish Republican Army members suspected to be behind the bombings would not be named at fresh inquests into the deaths. The Home Office, Ministry of Defence, Foreign Office, and police were all interested parties. The families were told they could not receive exceptional case funding because the case did not meet the merits test — yet a High Court judge had ruled it did have merit.

The LAA does not have its own media team and all press enquiries relating to legal aid applications are handled by the MoJ. The situation means that government press officers — and sometimes ministers — are briefed about pending legal aid applications in high-profile cases before a decision is made.

The department’s policy for handling high-profile cases was released by the MoJ, following a Freedom of Information request from the Legal Aid Practitioners Group. It says, “Where a case is already attracting media attention it should always be referred to the LAA’s Communications Team.” This is a team that does not speak to journalists but works closely with the MoJ press office, which does.

The policy makes it clear that a case will be considered as high-profile — and therefore shared with MoJ staff — when the “decision whether to grant or refuse legal aid to the client could cause serious reputational damage to the LAA … this might include funding high profile persons challenging the state, in circumstances that may attract hostile publicity or controversy or, conversely, refusing funding to an individual in a matter that is likely to attract widespread public sympathy.”

An increasing number of lawyers have contacted the Legal Aid Practitioners Group worried that there may have been “political interference or influence” in their legal aid applications. The removal of guaranteed legal aid for judicial review applications when challenging the behaviour of public bodies, including government, has added to concerns about transparency. In a report last year, LAPG said: “The constitutional implications of obstructing the right of challenge to the state by removing payment for cases are serious and contrary to principles of fairness and access to the Courts.”

Carol Storer, director of the LAPG, told BuzzFeed News: “A number of practitioners have contacted LAPG to express concerns that there is a real risk of political interference in some legal aid decisions where the government has an interest. The cases often raise issues of great importance, legally and constitutionally. The high profile policy creates the risk of political interference with decisions about which legal challenges may or may not be brought, which should be completely independent of government.”

To qualify for legal aid a person first has to prove they meet a strict means test, but there is also a more subjective merits test, which judges factors such as the likelihood of success and the benefit to the client of the case.

BuzzFeed News revealed in January that the proportion of people being turned down for criminal legal aid because of a subjective “interests of justice” test had increased from 47% to 67% since the LAA took on responsibility. The IOJ test used to be decided in courts by expert clerks and legal advisers, but since the LAA took on decision-making, lawyers and court staff say that the IOJ test has been interpreted much more harshly.

BuzzFeed News applied under FOI for the number of civil cases turned down for legal aid on merits grounds annually where the MoJ was a party in the case. This was refused on the grounds that it would be too expensive to find the information. The MoJ did release general figures, showing that in 2017–18, 3,008 civil cases were refused on merits in the whole country. Only a fraction of these would relate to government.

Richard Burgon, shadow justice secretary, said: “This is deeply concerning and the government appears to have serious questions to answer. Any political interference — or even just the perception of political interference — risks undermining public trust in the Legal Aid Agency. This will only add to the pressure for the Legal Aid Agency to be replaced by an independent body that operates fully at arm’s length from the government, as recommended by the Labour Party–initiated Bach Review into access to justice.”