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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

The total amount that DCMS spent on litigation services provided by the Government Legal Department and any external law firms and Counsel representing the department was:

(a) £198,557.00 (inc VAT) in 2020

(b) £226,283.10 (inc VAT) in 2021

(c) £197,729.56 (inc VAT) in 2022 (as at 30 June 2022)

These figures do not include the cost of Government Legal Department advice in relation to employment matters or the cost of advice by external firms or Counsel in relation to matters which did not result in litigation.

DCMS has one associated agency, Building Digital UK (BDUK). BDUK has not been involved in any litigation since it was established as an executive agency on 1 April 2022 - before that time any costs would have been included in the figures set out above. The organisation does seek legal advice on various matters including to support internal appeals on subsidy control, commercial matters, and compliance cases during the regular course of business.