Government Legal Departments

HC Deb 09 February 1995 vol 254 cc339-41W

Mr. Malcolm Bruce

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was the actual annual expenditure on Government legal departments in each year since 1979, in 1994 prices; and if he will provide the breakdown of such expenditures between(a) courts services, (b) legal aid, (c) magistrates courts and (d) salaries of the judiciary; and if he will provide similarly tabulated data showing expenditures on the Public Record Office.

Table 1—Lord Chancellor's Department
£ million
	(a)	(b)	(c)	(d)	(e)
Year	Court services	Legal aid	Magistrates courts	Salaries of the judiciary	Total expenditure
1979–80	132	295	192	22	631
1980–81	141	351	212	29	733
1981–82	131	388	214	30	763
1982–83	118	380	208	32	738
1983–84	159	400	216	32	807
1984–85	167	447	219	34	867
1985–86	166	486	224	40	916
1986–87	169	537	237	46	989
1987–88	204	598	246	48	1,096
1988–89	250	630	200	49	1,129
1989–90	283	700	204	47	1,234
1990–91	322	780	285	48	1,435
1991–92	382	971	297	51	1,701
1992–93	415	1,123	293	53	1,884
1993–94	391	1,212	290	55	1,948

Source:

Governement's expenditure plans.

Table 2—Northern Ireland Court Service
£ million
	(a)	(b)	(d)	(e)
Year	Court services	Legal aid	Salaries of the judiciary	Total expenditure
1979–80	9	—	2	11
1980–81	13	—	2	15
1981–82	14	—	2	16
1982–83	14	7	2	23
1983–84	14	11	2	27
1984–85	13	9	2	24
1985–86	12	12	2	26
1986–87	15	12	3	30
1987–88	17	13	3	33
1988–89	19	17	3	39
1989–90	20	15	3	38
1990–91	22	16	3	41
1991–92	20	17	3	40
1992–93	21	22	3	46
1993–94	23	18	3	44

Source:

Appropriation accounts and Government's expenditure plans.

Mr. John M. Taylor

The readily available figures for the Lord Chancellor's Department are those published in the Government's expenditure plans. They are set out in table 1. Column(a) is net of receipts and includes court building. To allow comparisons between years, the figures have been adjusted to include superannuation contributions, inter-departmental transfers and the transfer of responsibility for magistrates courts from the Home Office in 1992.

Figures for the Northern Ireland court service are set out in table 2. The Northern Ireland court service took over responsibility for legal aid in April 1982 and before that figures are not available. Column (a) includes the magistrates courts, which in Northern Ireland are an integral part of the court service and separate figures are not available.

Figures for the Public Record Office are shown in table 3.

	Table 3 Public Record Office
	£ million
Year	Total expenditure
1979–80	5
1980–81	6
1981–82	6
1982–83	6
1983–84	14
1984–85	15
1985–86	15
1986–87	15
1987–88	15
1988–89	13
1989–90	20
1990–91	22
1991–92	23
1992–93	27
1993–94	36

Source:

Supply estimates.

Notes:

1. 1993–94 prices—adjusted by the GDP deflator published 29 November 1994.