Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Oral Answer of 14 November 2016, Official Report, column 30, what the entire amount spent by his Department was on every stage of legal action defending the under-occupancy penalty; and how many hours, at what cost, officials spent working on that case.

The total legal costs of the proceedings in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in respect of MA & Others, Re A and Rutherford, which concerned the under-occupancy penalty, as of the 9 November 2016, when the Supreme Court judgement was handed down, was £484,077.94.

This figure includes the costs of the Supreme Court proceedings in respect of MA & Others, Re A and Rutherford, as of the 9 November 2016, which was £206,842.65. Previous references to this figure were made during an Urgent Question debate and also in a recent PQ answer.

These can be found at:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-11-14/debates/D5D5E72C-3772-46E6-8A4F-15A8F8EBA19A/Under-OccupancyCharge

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=53044

It should be noted that the above figures include Counsel’s fees, Government Legal Department litigation fees and other disbursements as well as VAT where payable.

Government Legal Department litigation have worked approximately 1365.9 hours in relation to these proceedings. Time spent by Government advisory lawyers is not recorded in a manner that allows it to be attributed to individual cases. Time spent by policy officials supporting lawyers is also not recorded.