Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193280 on Earl Mountbatten of Burma: Diaries, how much his Department spent on (a) barristers and (b) other lawyers as part of the (i) litigation related to the First-tier Tribunal and (ii) freedom of information requests made by Dr Andrew Lownie on the Mountbatten diaries and letters.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office has worked with the University of Southampton to support the release of the Mountbatten archive, whilst ensuring sensitive and official information is handled appropriately and in line with the Freedom of Information Act and Data Protection Act. Dr Lownie lost his appeal against the Cabinet Office, but continued to seek costs in a separate application. This application was rejected by the First Tier Tribunal and permission to appeal at the Upper Tribunal was also rejected.
The final legal costs relating to the First Tier Tribunal hearings and associated litigation regarding this archive are £180,454. This relates to 5 appeals EA/2020/0021, EA/2020/0026, EA/2020/0058, EA/2020/0059 and EA/2021/0125 as well as a further 5 related appeals and application to seek costs including UA-2022-001422, 001425, 001427, 001428 and 001429-GIA. These costs include those incurred by the Cabinet Office for external legal counsel and work by the Government Legal Department.
The cost of officials’ time, including Cabinet Office legal advisers’, is not recorded against each Freedom of Information request.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on (a) barristers and (b) other lawyers as part of the (i) litigation related to the First-tier Tribunal and (ii) freedom of information requests made by Dr Andrew Lownie on the Mountbatten diaries and letters; and if he will make an estimate of the cost of civil service time spent in handling all aspects of this matter.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
To provide this information would exceed the threshold and incur a disproportionate cost to the Cabinet Office. Civil servants do not record the proportion of time that they spend on individual matters, and cover a range of responsibilities, including Freedom of Information and litigation.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the report by Sir Robert Francis QC on Compensation and Redress for the Victims of Infected Blood - Recommendations for a Framework, published in March 2022, if he will take steps to implement the recommendation in paragraph 9.136 of that report that arrangements should be made immediately through the existing support schemes for an interim lump sum payment of compensation to be made to every living infected person accepted by a support scheme as eligible for annual support payments.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the Rt Hon. member to the answer given to PQ 16932 on 20 June 2022.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral contribution of 20 April 2022, Official Report, column 161, what steps he is taking to ensure that surviving nuclear test veterans receive recognition for their service.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Those who participated in the Nuclear Test Programme made a significant contribution to the safety and security of the UK by ensuring that we were equipped with an appropriate nuclear capability; it is right that their contribution is recognised.
The Prime Minister and I look forward to meeting with representatives of the Nuclear Test Veteran community shortly.