Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the highest hourly rate paid for legal advice was by (a) his Department and (b) each of his Department's arms length bodies in 2018.

(a) A large proportion of DCMS's legal advice is provided by the Government Legal Department (GLD) on an annual fixed fee basis. Additional legal advice is obtained from GLD on an hourly rate basis and the Department regularly engages private sector legal services from Counsel and external legal firms. Hourly rates are not available without reviewing individual invoices from the various legal service providers, which would incur disproportionate cost. Advice from counsel is, save for very limited and exceptional circumstances, provided at rates which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/attorney-generals-panel-counsel-practical-information#rates.

(b) This information is not held centrally and to collect this information would incur a disproportionate cost.