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Written Question
Department for International Trade: Legal Costs
Friday 25th January 2019

Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the highest hourly rate was that (a) his Department and (b) each of his Department's arms-length bodies paid for legal advice in 2018.

Answered by George Hollingbery

The highest hourly rate paid by the Department for International Trade for external legal advice in 2018 was £816ph. This was for a piece of urgent foreign law advice for which it was not possible to use the usual Government Legal Services Panels. The advice was subject to an overall fee cap and only 4.4 hours was charged at the £816 hourly rate.

The Department for International Trade does not currently have any arms-length bodies.