National legal assistance data

Under the National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020-25 (NAJP), the following groups must collect and report legal assistance data:

  • legal aid commissions
  • community legal centres
  • women’s legal services
  • Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services (FVPLS)
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.

Under Schedule E of the NAJP, transitional arrangements apply to FVPLS for the first 2 years, allowing flexibility where an FVPLS provider cannot collect or report specific information including schedule D data.

This data provides a greater understanding of the delivery of legal assistance services and supports frontline service delivery.

National Legal Assistance Data Strategy

Under the NAJP, the Commonwealth, state and territory governments are working with the legal assistance sector to develop a new National Legal Assistance Data Strategy by 30 June 2026. The Data Strategy will outline a long-term vision for legal assistance data under the NAJP. It will also identify realistic, incremental actions that will lead to improved NAJP data quality and consistency and strengthened data capability by 30 June 2030 and set a foundation for continued data improvements into the future.

National Legal Assistance Data Standards Manual

Data collected by the legal assistance sector is reported to governments in accordance with the National Legal Assistance Data Standards Manual.

This version of the manual (version 3) came into effect on 1 July 2021.

As part of the Data Strategy being developed under the NAJP, the Data Standards Manual will be reviewed and updated to maximise the quality and consistency of reported data.

Read historical versions of the Data Standards Manual

National legal assistance service data

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has established a national evidence base of legal assistance services data and publishes an annual statistical publication. This is based on unit level data the ABS collected on legal assistance service under the National Legal Assistance Partnership 2020-2025 and will soon begin collecting under the NAJP.

This collection of legal assistance service data enables meaningful analysis and insights that informs, and facilitates a greater understanding of, legal assistance services.

Visit the ABS website to access legal assistance services data