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The UK Legal Aid Agency said on October 14 that hackers who breached its systems in April 2025 stole about 250,000 records from before 2007, the earliest dating to 1978, according to its data update on GOV.UK. Most of the older records come from the 1990s and 2000s, and only a small number predate 1990.
Most of the stolen data relates to applications, claims or payments made between January 2007 and May 16, 2025, or to cases that were live in that period. The agency said that appearing in those date ranges does not, by itself, mean a person's data was taken.
The agency identified the attack on April 23, 2025. On May 16, 2025, it found the breach was more extensive than first understood. It is working with the National Crime Agency, the National Cyber Security Centre and the Information Commission.
For people who applied for or received legal aid, the data includes names, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers, postcodes, costs and payments, and financial assessment details. For practitioners, it includes provider contracts, office details, banking information, contact details and online portal user details.
The update also lists others connected with cases. These include the names of Crown Court judges, solicitors, advocates and court reporters, as well as opponents in certain civil cases. A smaller set covers people who managed pay point locations as of September 2021.
A relatively small number of probation service users are also affected, mainly from 2010 to 2017. Over 99 percent of those records relate to 2016 and 2017. They include names, dates of birth, nationalities and case reference numbers.
The agency said, “We have no indication that the stolen data has been published or shared.” BleepingComputer reports that a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the department had committed £20 million to upgrading the agency's digital systems before the attack and is now investing more than £200 million in modernizing services and strengthening cyber security.
The Legal Aid Agency is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It has about 1,250 staff and works with about 2,000 providers across England and Wales. The breach was followed in 2025 by attacks on the Co-op, Harrods and Marks & Spencer, which the DragonForce ransomware operation claimed.
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