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Written Question
Suicide
Monday 17th December 2018

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, whether a suicide note is classified as a legal document.

Answered by Robert Buckland

The Attorney General’s Office is not responsible for determining the legal status of any document. The legal status of a document would depend on a number of factors including the context it was being presented in.


Written Question
Government Legal Service
Thursday 19th January 2017

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many lawyers are employed in the Government Legal Service; and how many such lawyers are (a) women and (b) from ethnic minority communities.

Answered by Robert Buckland

The Government Legal Service (GLS) is not a department but a grouping of the legal profession within Government. Government lawyers take different forms; some are employed by the Government Legal Department (GLD), others employed by regulators and organisations at arm’s length from Government. The GLS is supported by a very small secretariat of fewer than five staff and does not systematically collect information as data is held by the lawyer’s own organisations. We are therefore unable to provide this information for the GLS. There is data for the GLD, which is the single largest ‘member’ of the GLS and the largest provider of legal services to government. As of 31 December 2016 the figures for the Government Legal Department are as follows:

Number of lawyers

1,400

Number of female lawyers

896

Number of lawyers from ethnic minority communities *

187

Number of female lawyers from ethnic minority communities *

132

*This figure is obtained from the information that is voluntarily self-recorded by employees


Written Question
Attorney General: Legal Profession
Wednesday 18th January 2017

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what the cost to his Department was of the use of external lawyers by his Department (a) in general and (b) related to the work of the Treasury Solicitors in (i) 2016, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2014.

Answered by Robert Buckland

The cost relating to the use of external lawyers (including lawyers in the Government Legal Department, formerly the Treasury Solicitor’s Department) by the Attorney General’s Office for the last three financial years is in the table below:

£

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Cost of GLD lawyers

425,859

330,442

322,023

Cost of GLD disbursements (Counsel)

210,537

340,640

220,182

Cost of GLD disbursements (Other external lawyers)

40,153

8,677

-

Non-GLD legal fees (Counsel)

18,816

14,252

18,949

Total external legal fees

695,366

694,011

561,153

All figures are exclusive of VAT.


Written Question
Consultants
Monday 1st September 2014

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2014, Official Report, column 184W, on consultants, who the consultants were; what they were contracted to do; and how much each was paid.

Answered by Robert Buckland

The information requested in respect of the Crown Prosecution Service was contained in an answer given to the Rt. Hon Member by the Attorney General on the 16th July (Official Report, Col 678W).

The table below contains details on the consultants used by the SFO since 2010-11.

Year

Contractor

Work type

Amount (£)

2010-11

PA Consultancy

Support work for senior management

986k

2010-11

Corven

Development work relating to Deferred

Prosecution Agreements; coaching

480k

2010-11

SCC

IT consultancy

60k

2010-11

DTZ

Preparation of Business case for

relocation and satellite offices

24k

2010-11

Morland Consulting

Research & Support Strategic

Risk Assessment

10k

2010-11

Processflows Ltd

IT consultancy

1k

2010-11

Ravn Systems Ltd

IT consultancy

7k

2011-12

PA Consultancy

Support work for senior

management

208k

2011-12

Corven

Consultancy work relating to

Deferred Prosecution Agreements

542k

2011-12

BNP Paribas

Lease surrender

61k

2011-12

Ravn Systems

IT consultancy

44k

2011-12

Hill and Knowlton

Communication advice

1k

2012-13

PA Consultancy

Late invoice for work in

2011-12 (as above)

31k

2013-14

SCC

IT consultancy

32k

2013-14

CIO Partners

Preparation of specialist

IT specification

2k

2013-14

Others*

Data management reviews

14k

* Two individuals carried out some work relating to an incident of data loss

Note 1: Records for this type of expenditure were not properly documented prior to April 2012. Available records are summarised above:

Note 2: The combined total of costs for the year 2010/11 does not match SFO’s previously published figures. The previous figure was understated by £10k because of credits for late invoices relating to 2009/10 which had been incorrectly categorised as consultancy expenditure.


Written Question
Crown Prosecution Service
Wednesday 16th July 2014

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2014, Official Report, column 389W, on the legal profession, what proportion of the money spent on consultancy fees by the Crown Prosecution Service was paid to which companies for what services in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014 to date.

Answered by Jeremy Wright

A table setting out the proportion of the money spent on consultancy fees by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) paid to companies for services in financial years from 2010/11 to 2013/14 has been placed in the Library of the House, together with the corresponding expenditure. The CPS financial reporting systems are configured to provide information based on financial rather than calendar years.


Written Question
Consultants
Tuesday 8th July 2014

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what the cost to the public purse was of external consultants employed by (a) the Serious Fraud Office and (b) the Crown Prosecution Service in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013 and (v) 2014 to date.

Answered by Oliver Heald

The following table contains details on the expenditure on external consultants by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) during the past four complete financial years. Both organisations financial reporting systems are configured to provide information based on financial rather than calendar years.

Year

External Consultants Expenditure

CPS

SFO

2010-11

£684,314

£1,557,887

2011-12

£13,347

£856,182

2012-13

£9,793

£31,142*

2013-14

£960

£48,228 (subject to audit)

* The expenditure listed for 2012-13 was actually incurred in 2011-12 but not paid until the following year.


Written Question
Legal Profession
Monday 16th June 2014

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what the cost to the public purse was of external lawyers employed by (a) the Serious Fraud Office and (b) the Crown Prosecution Service in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013 and (v) 2014 to date.

Answered by Oliver Heald

The amounts spent by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on external lawyers in each of the last four financial years is shown in the following table. Both organisations financial reporting systems are configured to provide information based on financial rather than calendar years.

Expenditure on external lawyers

Year

CPS

SFO

2010-11

£139,219,000

£4,523,561

2011-12

£115,329,000

£4,822,253

2012-13

£118,908,000

£5,956,633

2013-14

£122,929,000

£19,077,467

The SFO figures include the cost of external counsel, TSol and other legal fees, but do not include temporary agency staff. The SFO spend on counsel fees is published in its annual report. The increased figures for 2012-13 and 2013-14 reflect the revised treatment of VAT on some fees, repayment of some VAT which had been incorrectly recovered in earlier years, and costs relating to some very large cases and other litigation.

The SFO's requirement for additional expenditure in 2013-14 has already been set out to the House in documentation published around its Spring Supplementary Estimate, which has been scrutinised by the Justice Select Committee. The nature of the SFO's work means that it can occasionally incur significant additional legal expenses for its very largest and mostcomplex investigations and prosecutions, such as that into Libor.

The CPS figures are drawn from the CPS's core financial accounting system and they are consistent with the CPS's audited accounts. The great majority of fees for legal work paid by the CPS relates to the services of self-employed barristers and solicitors for crown court casework. The CPS also engages barristers and solicitors to undertake advocacy as agents in magistrates' courts sessions and, occasionally, to provide legal advice on discrete areas of specialist policy.


Written Question
Treasury Solicitor's Department
Monday 16th June 2014

Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many lawyers were employed in the Treasury Solicitor's Department in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014 to date.

Answered by Oliver Heald

The figures below give the number of lawyers employed in the Treasury Solicitor's Department (TSol), as at 31st March each year and to date for 2014.

Year

Full Time Equivalent

31st May 2014

910

31st March 2013

572

31st March 2012

565

31st March 2011

464

31st March 2010

451

The figures given are for permanent staff.

Since 2010 TSol has been engaged on a process of transferring lawyers from other departments to TSol as part of the the Shared Legal Services Programme. Sharing legal services brings considerable benefits including greater flexibility and resiliance, more efficient deployment of legal resources, more opportunities for savings and improved knowledge sharing, which in turn supports consistency of legal advice across Government.