To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what financial steps his Department is taking to increase the (a) development and (b) use of technology in the legal sector.

The Ministry of Justice sees the growth of lawtech and innovation in the delivery of legal services as vital for the continuing success of our world-renowned legal sector. To support this, the government has awarded £3 million of funding to CodeBase and Legal Geek to continue the LawtechUK programme from April 2023-March 2025. The funding will be used to deliver a programme of activities which will:

• increase innovation and the adoption of lawtech in the delivery of UK legal services

• support the growth of the lawtech sector in the UK

• enable English and Welsh law and the UK’s jurisdictions to become the foundation for emerging technologies.

LawtechUK was established in November 2019 and has helped the legal sector overcome legal, regulatory and cultural barriers to digital transformation. The Government provided £3 million of funding from November 2019 to March 2023 to deliver projects including a sandbox to help innovators fast track transformative ideas into products, educational resources, and a ground-breaking feasibility study for how technology can help small businesses resolve disputes.