My client is worried that their equality data will be used to refuse their application for legal aid

You should reassure your client that equality data is not seen by our employees who assess individual applications.   You can also remind them that we ask the equality questions to:

• give us the data we need to make important decisions about the legal aid system
• help us design and deliver our services to people who apply for legal aid.

The only information our employees will see for each application is age or date of birth.  In addition to the reasons above, we use this information to:

• check for duplicate applications, and
• check your client’s identity if we need to speak to them directly.