To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have chosen to represent themselves in Crown Court since the implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

Maintaining access to justice remains absolutely vital and continues to be at the heart of our reforms. Our legal aid reforms are reducing costs to taxpayers whilst still providing legal help to those who need it most.

Details of the number of defendants with no advocate or unknown representation can be found in table AC11 of the annual Criminal Courts Statistics Quarterly publication (main tables) at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2017