Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much their Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
We do not routinely publish this data, as has been the case under successive administrations.
All Business Units within the Attorney General's Office (AGO) have a responsibility to keep official hospitality costs as low as possible and demonstrate good value for money. Details of ministerial and senior official hospitality are published on a quarterly basis and are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much his Department spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in (i) 2020, (i) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Nothing has been spent on first class train travel in a) 2020, b) 2021 and c) 2022.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much his Department spent on taxi cabs for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each of the last three years.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The table below set outs the amount spent by Attorney General’s Office on taxis over the last 3 years.
2020-21 £54.31
2021-22 £191.80
2022-23 £796.05
Total £1,042.16
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much her Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Agency workers are subject to a Cabinet Office controls framework to ensure robust governance of spending in this area. Commentary on Contingent Labour usage, if applicable, is available in departmental annual reports.
The Attorney General’s Office does not pay agency retainer fees and the annual spend on agency workers, since 2020, is set out below.
Year | Cost |
2020-21 | £27,841.17 |
2021-22 | £78,790.99 |
2022-23 (P1-3) | £12,663.46 |
Total | £119,295.62 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much their Department has spent on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) officials in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The table below sets out the amounts the Attorney General’s Office spent on air travel per financial year.
2020-21 | 0.00 |
2021-22 | £110.98 |
2022-23 | £2,391.36 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much their Department has spent on advertising in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The table below sets out the amounts the Attorney General’s Office spent on advertising in the periods requested. These costs relate to the advertising of communications roles externally
2019-20 | £0.00 |
2020-21 | £1,194.00 |
2021-22 | £0.00 |
2022-23 | £1,470.00 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Attorney General exercises a number of public interest functions in relation to legal disputes, including appointing advocates to the court in family proceedings and intervening in proceedings to protect charities. The amounts spent by the Attorney General’s Office on external legal advice, include litigation and legal costs incurred in respect of the public interest activities of the Attorney General, for the calendar years of 2020 and 2021 and for the period 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2022 is as follows:
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These figures relate to costs of the Attorney General’s Office only because while the Office superintends a number of bodies, they are not agencies of the AGO.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many contracts that are worth (a) between £1 million and £3 million and (b) over £3 million their (i) Department and (ii) Department’s agencies and non-departmental public bodies (A) have agreed since 2010 and (B) are due to agree within the next 12 months; how much their Department has spent on monitoring each contract in each year since 2010; and how many officials have been working on that monitoring in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Details of Government contracts valued between £10,000 and £25,000 are published on Contracts Finder. As Contracts Finder was implemented in 2016, not all records before this period are held centrally.
The Government Legal Department, (GLD) frequently award contracts to support legal work, the size, nature and timing of these awards is uncertain, and it is not possible to ascertain how many of £1m - £3m or more than £3m will be agreed in the next 12 months.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) estimate 8 contracts will be between £1m to £3m and 10 above £3m over the next 12 months.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) are not able to provide this information due to commercial sensitivity.
The information on how much departments spend on monitoring the contracts or how many staff have monitored the contracts is not held.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much her Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) spent £18,547.96 on hospitality in 2020 financial year. This was the departments contribution towards the annual meeting of the five Attorneys-General from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, held in London on the 20th July 2019.
There was no spend on hospitality in the 2021 financial year. In 2022, the AGO spent £1146.09 hosting the Ukrainian Prosecutor General during her visit to the UK.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the wage ratio was between the highest paid member of staff in her Department and the lowest in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Attorney General’s Office wage ratio is as follows (a) 1:6.10 (b) 1:4.45 (c) 1:6.05.
As a small ministerial department with a limited number of staff disclosing salary figures would make staff potentially at risk of being identified.