Juliet-Nil Uraz - Interactive Maps

Justice Under Austerity: Spatial Inequality in Legal Aid Provision

These interactive maps accompany my Job Market Paper on the impact of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) on access to justice in England and Wales. They visualise legal aid provision at the neighbourhood level (7,264 Middle Super Output Areas) and allow you to explore how access varies across legal domains, provider types, and time.

Each map is interactive: hover over any area to see its value, click for details, and use the dropdown menus to filter by legal domain, provider type, and year. Poverty Law covers providers with a legal aid contract in welfare benefits, debt, or housing.

Distance to Nearest Legal Aid Provider (2009–2023)

How far must residents travel to reach their nearest legal aid provider? Use the year slider to see how distances evolved before and after LASPO. Areas in darker red are farther from provision.

Access to Legal Aid Provision — Inverse-Distance-Weighted Measure (FY 2009–2015)

A gravity-model measure of access that accounts for both the volume of nearby provision and how far away it is. Darker green means better access. Toggle between Fixed scale (to compare absolute levels across years and watch provision decline after LASPO) and Relative scale (to see which areas are best and worst served within a given year).

Treatment Change — LASPO Impact on Distance (Q2 2012 → Q1 2014)

The change in distance to the nearest provider between the last quarter before Royal Assent (Q2 2012) and the first full quarter of LASPO implementation (Q1 2014). This is the treatment variable used in the difference-in-differences analysis of my job market paper: Justice Under Austerity. Red areas saw access worsen; green areas saw improvement; grey areas experienced no change.

Change in Distance from Pre-Reform Baseline (2009–2023)

The evolution of access over time relative to Q1 2011 (before the LASPO bill was introduced). Use the year slider to watch how distances changed across the full period. This map shows the cumulative impact of provider exits on each neighbourhood.

Data sources: Legal Aid Agency provider-level administrative data; ONS 2021 Census MSOA boundaries. Maps built with Leaflet.js. Full replication code available on GitHub.

© 2026 Juliet-Nil Uraz. Code and maps released under the MIT License. Please cite as: Uraz, J.-N. (2026). "Justice Under Austerity: The Impact of Legal Aid Reform on Access to Justice in England and Wales."