Cabinet Office: EU Law
(asked on 3rd May 2016) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have spent on infraction proceedings in each of the last 10 years.
The Cabinet Office, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have incurred nil expenditure on infraction proceedings before the European Court of Justice.
Figures held centrally by the Cabinet Office are set out below, which show costs incurred by other government departments in engaging counsel as a result of infraction proceedings issued against the UK before the Court.
| 2010/2011 | 2011/2012 | 2012/2013 | 2013/2014 | 2014/2015 | 2015/2016 | 2016/2017 (year to date) |
BIS | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
CO | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
DCLG | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
DCMS | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
DECC | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
DEFRA | Nil | £1,740.00 | Nil | Nil | Nil | £8,791.61 | £966.66 |
DfE | £780.00 | 3,630.00 | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
DfT | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
DFID | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
DH | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | NIl | NIl |
DWP | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
FCO | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
HMT (HMRC) | £687.50 | £3,797.50 | £16,610.67 | £24,004.95 | £6,749.99 | £9,834.99 | Nil |
HO | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
MoD | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
MoJ | Nil | Nil | £2,520.00 | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
NIO | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
SO | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
WO | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
*The above represents all data held. We do not hold financial records on these matters before FY 2010/2011.
The UK has never been fined by the European Court of Justice as a result of infraction proceedings.
Costs for departments include costs incurred by non-departmental public bodies and agencies for which they are the lead department. While some departments will have incurred ad hoc costs in the pre-litigation stage of infraction proceedings, and costs associated with the attendance of government officials at infraction hearings, the cost of identifying that data would be disproportionate.
Departments do not quantify the cost of time spent by government officials throughout the infractions process.