A geography of access to justice: mapping social welfare legal aid need and provision in England and Wales

Abstract Our research combined statistical data, interviews, and geographic information system (GIS) tools to map social welfare legal aid ‘deserts’ in England and Wales. This novel mixed methodology enabled us to explore the spatiality of unmet legal aid need. We show that provision may be spatially uneven even where provider offices do exist, indicating that some legal desert areas have gone unidentified (absolute shortage), that contracted provider offices may not in fact be undertaking any legal aid work even when surrounded by areas of likely legal aid need (obscured shortage), and that certain types of provision may be unavailable even where other types are available, while few areas have provision for multiple legal problems (partial shortage). These findings call into question the commonly used dichotomy of met and unmet legal aid need. We argue that our findings demonstrate that a market‐based scheme alone cannot meet the need for legal aid provision.