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172867

registered interest
date	09/01/2015
answering body	Attorney General
answering dept id	88
answering dept short name	Attorney General
answering dept sort name	Attorney General
hansard heading	Government Departments: Judicial Review
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Attorney General, what amount each Government department has spent on external legal fees relating to each case involving substantive judicial review hearings since May 2010; and what the outcome of the proceedings was in each such case.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	220247
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2015 answer text <p>The Treasury Solicitor conducts most, but not all, litigation on behalf of government departments. For example, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs normally conducts its own litigation. In 2014 the Treasury Solicitor acted in about 17846 judicial reviews.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Treasury Solicitor’s Department does not hold central records on the external legal fees paid in each individual case or on the outcome of each such case. Such information could not be created without examining every case file and thus incurring disproportionate costs.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In relation to external fees, the Attorney General maintains five panels of junior counsel to undertake civil and EC work for all Government Departments. There are three London panels (an A panel for senior juniors, a B panel for middle juniors and a C panel for junior juniors) together with a Regional panel and a Public International Law panel. This is in addition to First Treasury Counsel (FTC) who exclusively does Government work, and to the Standing Counsel to certain Departments. <br></p><p> </p><p>The hourly rates for panel counsel are as follows:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>First Treasury Counsel - £230</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A panel - £120</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>B panel - £80</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>C panel - £60 if under 5 years call and £80 if over 5 years call.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In relation to outcomes, the Ministry of Justice publish figures on the number of Judicial Reviews by each Department up to 2012:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>See Table 4.3 at the link below:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/267408/additional-court-tables-2012.xls" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/267408/additional-court-tables-2012.xls</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>This shows the number of cases each year where Government departments were named as first defendant and where the judicial review was granted following a substantive hearing.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Mr Robert Buckland question first answered 14/01/2015 17:46:29 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

172924

registered interest
date	09/01/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Costs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Government spent on legal fees in the case Gudanaviciene & Ors, R (on the application of) v The Director of Legal Aid Casework & Or [2014] EWCA Civ 1622 (15 December 2014).
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	220248
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2015 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice is unable to provide the total expenditure in this case. Some issues of costs between the parties are yet to be determined and the Ministry of Justice has yet to receive final bills for legal fees and disbursements. In addition, legal advisers within the Legal Aid Agency do not claim for time spent advising on the defence of individual legal challenges brought against the Director of Legal Aid Casework unless pursuing costs from an opponent.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 14/01/2015 15:17:50 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

172820

registered interest
date	08/01/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to Question 217807, tabled on 9 December 2014, when he plans to answer Question 213688, tabled on 6 November 2014.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	220162
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>I can confirm that Questions 217807 and 213688 were answered on 8 January 2015. The answers can be found at the following links:</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&amp;max=20&amp;questiontype=AllQuestions&amp;house=commons%2clords&amp;uin=217807" target="_blank">http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&amp;max=20&amp;questiontype=AllQuestions&amp;house=commons%2clords&amp;uin=217807</a></p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&amp;max=20&amp;questiontype=AllQuestions&amp;house=commons%2clords&amp;uin=213688" target="_blank">http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&amp;max=20&amp;questiontype=AllQuestions&amp;house=commons%2clords&amp;uin=213688</a></p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 13/01/2015 17:34:03 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

172822

registered interest
date	08/01/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to answer Question 217822, tabled on 9 December 2014.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	220164
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>I can confirm that Question 217822 was answered on 13 January 2015. The answer can be found at the following link:</p><p> </p><p>http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2014-12-09/217822/</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 13/01/2015 17:30:04 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

172602

registered interest
date	07/01/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Judicial Review
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what amount his Department has spent on legal fees in judicial review cases in which it was found to have acted unlawfully since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	220082
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2015 answer text <p>The Department does not keep a central record of the legal spend and the outcome in every judicial review brought against it or its associated bodies.</p><p> </p><p>To bring together the information sought would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 12/01/2015 17:46:03 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

172603

registered interest
date	07/01/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Employment Tribunals Service
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the target for collection of employment tribunal fees was in each quarter since the introduction of such fees; what sum was collected in such fees; what the costs of such collection were; what value in such fees was waived under remission; what the cost of setting up the remission scheme was; and what overall net sum was received in such fees.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	220109
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2015 answer text <p>There has not been a target for the collection of employment tribunal fees since the introduction of such fees. The impact assessment for the introduction of fees estimated that £10m of fee income would be generated annually. With new claim volumes reducing in 2013/14, HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service (HMCTS) estimates fee income will be approximately £9m in 2014/15.</p><p> </p><p>The fee income collected in each quarter since July 2013 is:</p><table><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3"> </td><td colspan="4"><p>2013/14</p></td><td colspan="2"><p>2014/15</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Q1</p></td><td><p>Q2</p></td><td><p>Q3</p></td><td><p>Q4</p></td><td><p>Q1</p></td><td><p>Q2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Fees Collected</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0.5</p></td><td><p>1.6</p></td><td><p>2.4</p></td><td><p>2.1</p></td><td><p>2.3</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>It is not possible to separate out many costs of collection from the wider costs of employment tribunals, which have fallen in 2013/14 and 2014/15. The estimated running and support costs for administering the fee collection process in Employment Tribunals are shown below:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3"> </td><td colspan="4"><p>2013/14</p></td><td colspan="2"><p>2014/15</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Q1</p></td><td><p>Q2</p></td><td><p>Q3</p></td><td><p>Q4</p></td><td><p>Q1</p></td><td><p>Q2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td><td><p>£m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Additional ongoing BAU Costs</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0.0</p></td><td><p>0.0</p></td><td><p>0.4<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>0.3</p></td><td><p>0.3</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><em><sup>1</sup>In practice staff costs in 2013/14 would have been incurred before quarter 4 with the figures shown representing costs recorded to the relevant cost centres for the fee collection teams. All IT costs in 2013/14 are included in the set up costs described below.</em></p><p> </p><p>It is not possible to disaggregate the cost of establishing new (and revising existing) IT systems to handle remission applications in the employment tribunals system, from that work in relation to the systems for collecting fees. The figure provided below is a combined total.</p><p> </p><p>The capital investment made by HMCTS in respect of IT systems to support the collection of fee receipts and remission applications across the employment tribunals system was £4.4m. A further £0.6m resource was spent on the project to implement fees giving a total £5.0m project cost.</p><p> </p><p>HMCTS estimates that £8.9m of fee income was collected from July 2013 to the end of June 2014. The full cost of operating the employment tribunals for 2013/14 was £76.3m gross expenditure and £71.8m net of fee income, a reduction of £14.9m from the £86.7m full cost of operating the employment tribunals for the year 2012 /13.</p><p> </p><p>The sum collected in relation to employment tribunal fees for the period 2013-2014 is available from financial information relating to fees and charges, published by HMCTS in its Annual Report and Accounts. The HMCTS Annual Report and Accounts for 2013-14 was published in June 2014 on the Ministry of Justice website and can be found at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/corporate-reports/hmcts.</p><p> </p><p>For the period from April 2014 to 30 November 2014 HMCTS has received a gross total of £5.8m in employment tribunal fees of which £1.4m has been forgone in fee remission, leaving £4.4m in net fees.</p><p> </p><p>I expect to be in a position to publish more detailed data on the number of remission applications made, and awards made, for the employment tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunal in the Tribunal and Gender Recognition Certificate Statistics quarterly bulletin by the end of this financial year.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 12/01/2015 17:32:03 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

171663

registered interest
date	18/12/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Publications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Government spent on the case Gordon-Jones, R (on the appplication of) v The Secretary of State for Justice & Anor [2014] EWHC 3997 (Admin) (5 December 2014).
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	219542
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2015 answer text <p>I anticipate that the Ministry of Justice will incur costs of approximately £72,000, including VAT.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 05/01/2015 17:47:38 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

171669

registered interest
date	18/12/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Accommodation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders held in a cell designed for one inmate shared it with (a) one other and (b) more than one other inmate in each of the last four years.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	219502
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2015 answer text <p>Figures for the number of prisoners held two to a cell designed for one (known as ‘doubling’) are set out in the table below for the years 2008-09 to 2013-14. To place the numbers in context they are shown alongside the average prisoner population and the percentage of the population held two to a cell designed for one.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Average number of prisoners held two to a cell designed for one</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Average prisoner population</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>% of average prisoner population held two to a cell designed for one</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2008-09</p></td><td><p>19,153</p></td><td><p>82,830</p></td><td><p>23.1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009-10</p></td><td><p>19,083</p></td><td><p>83,971</p></td><td><p>22.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010-11</p></td><td><p>19,268</p></td><td><p>84,920</p></td><td><p>22.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>20,152</p></td><td><p>86,638</p></td><td><p>23.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>19,044</p></td><td><p>85,729</p></td><td><p>22.2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14</p></td><td><p>18,515</p></td><td><p>84,594</p></td><td><p>21.9</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>While the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) collects the total number of prisoners held in crowded conditions (e.g. two prisoners held in a cell designed for one, or three prisoners held in a cell designed for two) it does not centrally record how many prisoners were held in a cell designed for one prisoner and shared it with more than one other prisoner. To identify the number of prisoners who were held in a cell designed for one but shared it with more than one other prisoner in each of the last four years would require manually going through individual prison cell certificate records in each prison, followed by a manual trawl of prisoners' individuals records to identify each prisoner’s cell location in each of the last four years, which could only be undertaken at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer. This Government has a long term strategy for managing the prison estate which will provide more adult male prison capacity than we inherited from the previous Government.</p><p> </p><p>Crowding occurs when the number of prisoners in an accommodation unit exceeds the Certified Normal Accommodation in that unit. The average rate of crowding is published in NOMS Annual Report and Accounts.</p><p> </p><p>In 2013-14, the average number of prisoners held in crowded conditions decreased to 22.9% of the total population compared to 23.3% in 2012-13. This is the lowest level since 2001-02 and has come down from a high of 25.3% in 2007-08.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 05/01/2015 17:44:21 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

170766

registered interest
date	16/12/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Courts: Prison Accommodation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions court cells were made available for housing prisoners overnight in each of the last four years.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	219029
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Court cells have not been used to hold prisoners overnight since 28 February 2008.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 05/01/2015 16:46:33 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

170769

registered interest
date	16/12/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Insolvency
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications of the ruling of the High Court in the case of R (on the application of Tony Whitshon) v Secretary of State for Justice on his policy on (a) insolvency litigation and (b) other exemptions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	219028
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The Court’s judgment concerned the issue of the application of the no win no fee reforms in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 to mesothelioma claims. It does not have wider implications for insolvency and other cases.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 06/01/2015 17:27:22 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter