The Solicitors Regulation Authority is launching a study into gaps in access to justice.

The organisation has commissioned the research, which runs until Autumn, to find out if gaps in provision have any impact on different groups of consumers and whether factors like ethnicity affect access to legal services.

Professors Irene Scopelliti and Zachary Estes from Bayes Business School of City University London are launching the study which will at first identify different consumers based on individual needs and behaviours when a legal issue arises, but will also look at gaps in provision and which consumers are adversely affected.

Anna Bradley, chair of the SRA said: ‘We know that many people don’t access the legal services they need and that’s why we have commissioned this independent research.

‘We want to understand which groups of people are most affected and why. This will in turn help us all to understand what needs to be done to help tackle the problems and then work out what part we might all need to play.’