Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much his Department has paid to hon. Members under section 4 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 since 13 July 2016.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Attorney General’s Office has made no payments to Honourable Members under section 4 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 since 13 July 2016.
Since 13 July 2016, two Ministers have left office, both were as a result of a Ministerial reshuffle and as such no severance payments were made.
Reports of any Ministerial severance pay are published in the audited annual report and accounts for HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor and can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much the Law Officers' Departments has spent on (a) hotels, (b) hospitality, (c) food and drink and (d) transport in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
CPS
Category | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
Hotels | - | 1,010,080 | 1,396,952 | 1,327,147 | 1,483,386 |
Hospitality | - | - | - | - | - |
Food and drink | 154,553 | 166,225 | 173,708 | 181,970 | 183,470 |
Transport | - | 4,161,445 | 4,445,346 | 4,276,918 | 4,511,405 |
SFO
Category | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17* |
Hotels | 87,844 | 80,616 | 95,414 | 101,582 | 104,782 |
Hospitality | 2,648 | 1,628 | 3,007 | 2,634 | 2,733 |
Food and Drink | 6,238 | 2,090 | 3,023 | 507 | 1,103 |
Transport | 113,964 | 153,723 | 231,954 | 186,622 | 224,170 |
*Figures as of 28 February 2017
GLD, including AGO and HMCPSI
UK Hotels
£ | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
GLD* | 6,772 | 10,549 | 6,403 | 19,363 | 26,628 |
AGO | 402 | 2,265 | 2,210 | - | 375 |
HMCPSI | 49,023 | 41,803 | 42,759 | 23,642 | 35,369 |
Hospitality
£ | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
GLD* | - | 657 | 177 | 47 | 204 |
AGO | 2,897 | 41 | - | 18 | - |
HMCPSI | 123 | 6 | - | 64 | - |
Travel
£ | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
GLD* | 79,539 | 106,161 | 139,103 | 252,523 | 307,457 |
AGO | 153,893 | 123,566 | 98,644 | 110,462 | 116,192 |
HMCPSI | 86,678 | 61,841 | 72,149 | 61,753 | 72,175 |
Other related cost
£ | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
GLD* | 42,126 | 57,906 | 56,464 | 58,153 | 70,390 |
AGO | 3,536 | 3,451 | 554 | 918 | 911 |
HMCPSI | 20,323 | 10,982 | 10,815 | 23,828 | 16,639 |
This includes all expenditure on food and drink, foreign hotels and other subsistence costs and the cost of meeting refreshments. This expenditure cannot be broken down further without looking at individual invoices which would incur disproportionate cost.
*The Treasury Solicitor’s Department until 31 March 2015. GLD has increased in size as a result of the merger programme to create a shared legal service for government and expenditure has increased as a result.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the five most visited websites were by staff of the Law Officers' Departments in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
CPS & HMCPSI
SFO
Details of the websites visited most often by SFO staff during the past 12 months are not held centrally. However, records are held on the SFO’s internet proxy server covering the 6 month period up to 27 March 2017
GLD
The Attorney General’s Office has recently changed IT providers and is unable to access this data.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people undertook an unpaid work placement in the Law Officers' Departments in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and how many such placements lasted for longer than one month.
Answered by Robert Buckland
GLD has offered the following number of work experience placements in each of the last five. None of them lasted for longer than one month. The placements were unpaid but assistance was provided with travel and subsistence costs. The placements were aimed either at promoting access to the legal profession, or to provide work experience to those from disadvantaged or black or minority ethnic backgrounds.
Year | Number of Work Placements in GLD |
2012 | 15 |
2013 | 28 |
2014 | 30 |
2015 | 31 |
2016 | 31 |
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) does not undertake unpaid work placements.
The SFO does enable school age students to undertake work experience varying between 1 day and a week. SFO central records indicate that 26 students have completed such a placement over the past five years, as detailed in the following table, but none was for longer than one week.
Year | Number of students at SFO |
2012 | 6 |
2013 | 1 |
2014 | 6 |
2015 | 8 |
2016 | 5 |
There are no central records held in regard to unpaid work experience at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and to collect this information would be at a disproportionate cost.
Nobody has undertaken an unpaid work placement at AGO and HMCPSI within this timeframe.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much the Law Officers' Departments spent on (a) iPads and tablets and (b) paper in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Robert Buckland
GLD expenditure on IPads and tablets (including VAT):
2012: nil
2013: nil
2014: £12,252.00
2015: nil
2016: £24,933.12
GLD has consistently consumed 13,960 boxes (69,800 reams) of paper per annum for the last 5 years. The cost for the period 2016-17 to date was £76,241. Accurate costs for earlier periods cannot be determined except at disproportionate cost since they form part of composite billing for all stationery.
HMCPSI Expenditure on IPads and tablets (including VAT):
2012: nil
2013: nil
2014: nil
2015: nil
2016: nil
Accurate costs for paper purchases cannot be determined except at disproportionate cost since they form part of composite billing for all stationery.
CPS and AGO
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has not spent any money on iPads in the last five years.
The CPS, including the Attorney General’s Office, spend on tablets over the last five years has been provided in the table below:
Year Cost of Tablet including VAT(£)
2012 75,412
2013 0
2014 0
2015 46,077
2016 25,885*
*costs are estimated for 2016
(b) The CPS estimates that it has spent the following amounts on paper over the last 5 years:
Year Cost (£)
2012* 1,120,904
2013* 926,609
2014** 983,802
2015** 847,431
2016** 445,717
* costs for 2012 and 2013 are based on historic data provided by CPS stationery suppliers
** costs for 2014, 2015 and 2016 are estimated and based on total stationery spend for the periods.
To identify all expenditure that relates solely and specifically to paper would involve the manual checking of thousands of invoices and would incur a disproportionate cost.
Accurate costs for AGO paper purchases cannot be determined except at disproportionate cost since they form part of composite billing for all stationery.
SFO
The SFO does not separately record paper costs from overall stationery expenditure.
Stationery Year Cost (£)
2012-13 64,094
2013-14 69,657
2014-15 74,750
2015-16 52,721
2016-17* 40,916
iPads & Tablets Year Cost (£)
2012-13 0
2013-14 10,423
2014-15 0
2015-16 0
2016-17* 9,475
*Spend as at 31/01/2017
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many staff in his Department are employed in media relations and communications roles; and how much was spent on the salaries of such staff members in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The table below lists the numbers of civil servants employed in media relations and communications at the Law Officers’ Departments from 2008- 2016. Please note this is a snapshot figure, and may have varied slightly throughout the year. Figures for 2007 are not available.
| SFO | AGO, GLD, HMCPSI | CPS | ||||
Date | Staff Numbers | Total Salaries | Staff Numbers AGO | Staff Numbers GLD | Staff Numbers HMCPSI | Total Salaries GLD, AGO, HMCPSI | Salaries for 33 people in media relations and communications roles. |
2008 | 6 | £194k | 1 | 2 | 2 | £138k | £1,128k |
2009 | 5 | £165k | 0 | 2 | 2 | £107k | £1,4157k |
2010 | 5 | £177k | 3 | 3* | 2 | £202k | £1,747k |
2011 | 7 | £241k | 3 | 3 | 2 | £266k | £1,605k |
2012 | 6 | £223k | 3 | 3 | 2 | £304k | £1,320k |
2013 | 5 | £189k | 3 | 4 | 2 | £361k | £1,221k |
2014 | 4 | £158k | 2 | 4 | 2 | £287k | £1,329k |
2015 | 5 | £189k | 2 | 5 | 2 | £353k | £1,136k |
20/16 | 5 | £195k | 2 | 5* | 2 | £321k | £1,082k |
* Includes one Agency worker who was not directly employed