Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the legal cases in relation to the prorogation of Parliament.
Answered by Michael Ellis
No estimate has been made of the total costs of the prorogation litigation, which only recently concluded. We expect to know the final figures in November.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has had officials take sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months. However, we are not in a position to release this data, as due to the small size of the office this could lead to individuals becoming identifiable.
The AGO is highly committed to the health and wellbeing of its staff, and works to help them to manage stress in the workplace. The AGO offers a range of guidance and services in place to support staff, including launching its own wellbeing statement and strategy, and receiving the commitment of the Executive Board to wellbeing. The staff volunteer led wellbeing group has organised numerous events for colleagues to help improve wellbeing and manage stress. The AGO also offers free counselling services for staff members.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many staff of his Department who were transferred or seconded to work (a) in other Departments and (b) on other departmental briefs on preparations for the UK to leave the EU have since returned to his Department.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Attorney General’s Office had one employee who joined DExEU on loan to support work on preparations for the UK to leave the EU. The employee subsequently moved permanently to another department and will not return to the Attorney General’s Office.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Robert Buckland
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:
£412m of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016.
£286m of additional funding for 17/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 17/18:
Over £1.5bn of additional funding for 18/19. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/)
Over £2bn of additional funding for 19/20. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS1205, laid on the 18th December (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-12-18/HCWS1205/)
The funding provided is in addition to the Attorney General’s Office’s efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU. This funding is to support preparation for all scenarios.