Social Welfare and Immigration Legal Aid: Mapping Need, Provision and Accessibility: Provider and Advice User Perspectives, 2022-2025

The data collection consists of qualitative interviews undertaken for the ESRC-funded SWILAMAP project between 2022-25.The aims of the research were to gain insights into the provision of legal aid advice and representation, to identify and understand barriers to provision of Social Welfare and Immigration Legal Need (SWILA) in different categories of law. The law tells us what categories of law are within scope of legal aid for each jurisdiction; spreadsheets and search tools tell us which providers offer SWILA services, yet little was known about who really undertakes this work, for whom, under what circumstances, and still less about demand which goes unmet. The research also aimed to understand national and place-specific barriers and to compare the three legal aid models operating in the UK (England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland).

There were 53 interviews with 57 individuals in the 'provider interviews' dataset but a small number of these are excluded from the deposit because of the risk of identifiability of interviewees where there was a very small field; primarily these are the ones from Northern Ireland. Each of these has an interview code beginning 'SWI-'

There were 56 interviews with SWILA users, of which four were excluded for quality reasons and one did not consent to depositing. Each of these has an interview code beginning 'LAAU-' Additionally there is a note on observations in housing possession courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The data collection includes the interviews, observation notes, and metadata.