Legal Services Commissioner
Justice Centre I 19 Aitken Street I DX SX10125 I Wellington
T 04 918 8800 I F 04 918 8820
[email address]
5 March 2025
Andy Reynolds
[FYI request #29735 email]
Ref: OIA 119221
Tēnā koe Andy
Official Information Act request: Legal Aid expenditure
Thank you for your email of 5 February 2025 to the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry),
requesting information regarding legal aid expenditure. Specifically, you requested:
To be clear, I am requesting total defense counsel spend (both the PDS AND
LegalAid) versus the crown prosecution services costs - which would compare these
two services. This should be shown in the same manner as already provided, a table
of months, with a tally of the year total.
Your request has been referred to me for response, as it falls within my responsibilities as
Legal Services Commissioner and is being managed in accordance with the provisions of
the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act).
As you are aware, on 16 January 2025, the Ministry partially transferred your previous 13
January 2025 request for information about the Crown Prosecution Services to Crown Law,
under section 14 of the Act, as the information is held by Crown Law. You can expect a
response from Crown Law in due course.
On 12 February 2025, the Ministry contacted you to clarify whether you were seeking figures
on criminal legal aid grant expenditure. However, as we did not hear back from you, we have
interpreted your request for the cost of all criminal legal aid grant expenditure, excluding the
cost of the Duty Lawyer Service and Police Detention Legal Assistance Service as these
services are not comparable.
Please see attached Table 1 for the monthly criminal legal aid invoices approved for
payment, from 2022 to 2024.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
Of icial Information Act responses | New Zealand Ministry of Justice
If you require any further information, please contact Media & Social Media Manager Joe
Locke at [email address]
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act. The Office of the Ombudsman may be
contacted by email to [email address] or by phone on 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Tracey Baguley
Legal Services Commissioner
Appendix 1 Table 1: Monthly criminal legal aid invoices approved for payment, from 2022 to 2024.
Month
2022
2023
2024
January
$ 6,669,075
$ 7,630,494 $ 12,123,048
February
$ 8,860,738
$ 11,985,256 $ 12,516,320
March
$ 13,204,639 $ 17,596,442 $ 18,077,874
April
$ 10,387,361 $ 15,694,426 $ 15,317,505
May
$ 12,767,669 $ 16,274,236 $ 17,242,217
June
$ 13,284,513 $ 16,328,558 $ 15,836,098
July
$ 14,705,881 $ 13,018,857 $ 15,729,995
August
$ 12,498,660 $ 20,315,159 $ 20,421,749
September
$ 13,407,621 $ 17,104,930 $ 16,426,638
October
$ 12,533,056 $ 16,024,726 $ 17,912,604
November
$ 17,765,605 $ 17,162,726 $ 19,171,544
December
$ 16,508,317 $ 15,902,812 $ 21,234,207
Total
$ 152,595,157
$ 185,040,645 $ 202,011,822
Notes for Table 1:
• Please note this table contains data drawn from a database that is subject to change as new data
is continual y recorded and/or recoded. This data was extracted as at 21 February 2025.
• The data only includes criminal invoices that were assessed and approved for payment.
• The data excludes the costs for other legal services that can be used for criminal matters, such as
the Duty Lawyer service and Police Detention Legal Assistance service. Additionally, it excludes
costs for Civil, Family, and Waitangi matters.
• The data also excludes Public Defence Services.
• This data is for each calendar year - 1 January to 31 December.
• Not al legal aid providers are GST registered, GST is included for those providers that are.
