Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many contracts put out to tender by the Law Officers' Departments were awarded to (a) charities and (b) social enterprises in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not keep central records of the status of suppliers and is therefore unable to verify if any contracts have been awarded to (a) charities and (b) social enterprises in each year since 2010. To identify any such expenditure would involve checking large numbers of paper records and would incur disproportionate cost (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, part 2, clause 9).
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), HMCPSI and the Government Legal Department (GLD) have not awarded any contracts to charities or social enterprises since 2010.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2017 to Question 66990, on procurement, what estimate he has made of the amount spent on managing procurement in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The estimated spend of the Crown Prosecution Service on managing procurement for each year since 2010 is as follows:
Year | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
(£000s) | 637 | 531 | 521 | 847 | 858 | 894 | 852 |
The figures are based upon average staff costs and the costs of external procurement services. From August 2013, the figures include an element equivalent to two full time posts which is part of a shared purchasing service to the GLD, AGO and HMCPSI and described below.
The spend by the Government Legal Department (GLD), Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) is as follows:
Year | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
(£000s | 125 | 125 | 88 | 144 | 159 | 132 | 135 |
As noted above, the CPS Procurement Team provides procurement support and advice under a shared service arrangement. Prior to August 2012, this function was provided by a GLD Procurement Team.
Individual Serious Fraud Office (SFO) teams are responsible for the day-to-day contract management of expert services and lower value contracts that fall within their business areas. Senior members of case teams are also responsible for the management of counsel and other experts engaged on SFO cases. The SFO does not hold central records on the contract management time spent by each and every staff member involved and such information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many security passes giving access to the Law Officers' Departments' premises have been issued in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The number of security passes issued each year since 2010 for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are:
Year | Passes created |
2010 | 282 |
2011 | 227 |
2012 | 531 |
2013 | 4516 |
2014 | 893 |
2015 | 5632 |
2016 | 1068 |
The number of security passes issued each year since 2014 for the Government Legal Department (GLD), and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) are:
Year | Passes Activated |
2014 | 1396 |
2015 | 699 |
2016 | 2698 |
Reliable figures are only available from 2014.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is currently a tenant of the Canadian High Commission (CHC) who are responsible for the administration of security passes allowing access to their premises. The CHC do not hold a reliable central record detailing the exact number of historical passes issued in each year since the SFO moved into the premises in 2012 and such information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
The AGO has issued 11 passes since moving to new office premises in February 2017. Reliable information is not available for prior years when AGO was located at 20 Victoria Street, London.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people holding security passes for other Government Departments are granted access to the Law Officers' Departments' premises with that pass, by Department.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Civil servants have to ability to work flexibly across government sites where there is a business need to do so. The issuing of all passes is controlled by the local security teams who follow strict procedures and protocols. Information on the number of people holding security passes for other government departments who are granted access to the different AGO premises is not centrally recorded.
At present the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) do not accept other Government Department passes to access the CPS Headquarters office.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people are currently employed by the Law Officers' Departments.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
This information is available in the ONS Public Sector Employment Statistics last published on 15 March 2017:
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2017 to Question 65676, how much of the procurement spending in each of those years related to the services of management consultants.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
| Expenditure on management consultants | |||||
| 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
AGO | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
SFO | £1,382,460 | £772,659 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
CPS | £684,314 | £13,347 | £9,793 | £960 | 0 | 0 |
GLD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
HMCPSI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The CPS does not separately record expenditure on management consultancy and the amounts in the table above represent expenditure on all consultancy services and may include non-management consultancy services such as IT, legal, HR and project management.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2017 to Question 66990, what the pay grades are of the (a) 330 lawyers from the GLD's litigation group, (b) 12.5 full-time equivalent Crown Prosecution Service staff and (c) three Serious Fraud Office staff employed.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
(a) Government Legal Department: The 330 lawyers in the Litigation Group are at Senior Civil Service, Grade 6 and Grade 7.
(b) Crown Prosecution Service: The grades of the 12.5 (FTE) members of commercial staff are shown in the below table.
Civil Service Grade | CPS Commercial staff @ 31/01/2017 |
G7 | 2.0 |
SEO | 4.5 |
HEO | 3.0 |
EO | 1.0 |
AO | 0.0 |
AA | 2.0 |
Total | 12.5 |
(c) Serious Fraud Office: The three members of the procurement team are one Grade 6 (who also manages the Facilities Management Team), one Senior Executive Officer and one Higher Executive Officer.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of Civil Service positions in the Law Officers' Departments was vacant for a week or longer in each year since 2010; and what the average turnover rate for civil servants in the Law Officers' Departments has been in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) retains records on recruitment vacancies from 1 June 2014. From 1 June 2014, 100% of vacancies remained vacant for a period in excess of five working days.
The rest of the Law Officers’ Departments do not hold information about the number of positions that have been vacant for a week or longer. Such a situation arises frequently, for example, when an individual moves post and there is a gap of a week or more before his or her successor takes up post.
| AGO | GLD | HMCPSI | CPS | SFO |
01/04/2010 – 31/03/2011 | 47.23% | 12.53% | 13.00% | 8.6% | 11.9% |
01/04/2011 – 31/03/2012 | 26.14% | 13.11% | 21.03% | 9.775% | 14.8% |
01/04/2012 – 31/03/2013 | 27.88% | 9.78% | 20.03% | 8.925% | 18.8% |
01/04/2013 – 31/03/2014 | 31.76% | 13.48% | 24.05% | 12.3% | 14.04% |
01/04/2014 – 31/03/2015 | 42.45% | 9.83% | 22.16% | 11.05% | 14% |
01/04/2015 – 31/03/2016 | 42.22% | 8.89% | 12.04% | 9.35% | 14% |
*The majority of staff based at the Attorney General’s Office are on loan to the department for a period of two to three years and return to their home department at the end of their loan. This business model also operates in HMCPSI although to a lesser degree than AGO
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2017 to Question 64992, on Attorney General: procurement, how many civil servants of the Law Officers' Departments have contract management responsibility for external providers.
Answered by Robert Buckland
It is not possible to be precise about the exact number of civil servants who oversee contracts which have been awarded to external providers.
The majority of the 330 lawyers GLD’s Litigation Group are engaged in managing contracts, for example instructing expert witnesses and counsel.
12.5 (fte) CPS staff spend more than 50% of their time on commercial work - including 2.0 staff specifically engaged to provide the Government Legal Department purchasing advice.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has a central procurement team of three individuals who oversee SFO procurement including managing high value contracts and advising staff on best practice.
There will be other staff across the LODs that are responsible for overseeing contracts however central records are not currently maintained on each staff member involved.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of senior civil servants of the Law Officers' Departments are (a) men, (b) women, (c) disabled, (d) from working-class backgrounds and (e) from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The details below are in respect of members of the senior civil service in the Law Officer’s Departments that are (a) men, (b) women, (c) disabled, (d) from working-class backgrounds and (e) from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds as follows:
2016/17 | AGO | GLD | HMCPSI | CPS | SFO |
Men | 25% | 53.9% | 100% | 48% | 61.5% |
Women | 75% | 56.1% | 0% | 52% | 38.5% |
Disabled* | 0% | 9.2% | 0% | 1.5% | 0% |
Working class background | Information not held | ||||
BAME* | 0% | 7.8% | 0% | 8.5% | 0% |
* Disability and BAME is declared by all staff on a voluntary basis and this data has been calculated using such declared information so these figures might not be wholly accurate.