§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on his Department's policy when(a) conducting legal proceedings and (b) seeking legal advice as to the circumstances in which Queen's Counsel should be instructed; and for each of the last three years (i) on how many occasions his Department instructed Queen's Counsel and (ii) what was the total cost of instructing Queen's Counsel. [81758]
§ Mr. ByersThe DTI's policy is similar to that of other departments. The Crown Prosecution Service, the Treasury Solicitor's Department, the Serious Fraud Office and the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers predominantly use junior counsel when it is necessary to instruct counsel to provide legal advice or to conduct legal proceedings.
In civil cases, the two First Treasury Counsel are both junior counsel and they will advise and represent the Government without a Queen's Counsel in many of their important cases. In addition, the Attorney-General maintains four panels of junior Counsel whom Departments are expected to use for the majority of the Government's civil litigation. The approval of the Attorney-General or the Solicitor-General is required before a Queen's Counsel can be instructed to appear for any Government Department in civil litigation.
A panel of Standing Counsel who are all junior counsel, exists in London and the South Eastern circuit to provide advice and to handle most work at the Central Criminal Court and Crown Court in that area. More generally, the 407W Department maintains circuit based lists of junior counsel to conduct almost all its criminal casework in the Crown Court in England and Wales. Within and outside London, Queen's Counsel are instructed occasionally in very serious or complex casework prosecuted by the Crown.
In determining the level of counsel to use, the Department will consider the individual circumstances of each case. It will take into account, inter alia, the importance and sensitivity of the case, the complexity of the law, the weight and complexity of the evidence, and the degree of experience and expertise required before deciding whether to instruct Queen's Counsel or junior counsel.
The number of occasions on which the Department has instructed Queen's Counsel in the last three years, and the cost of doing so, is not collected centrally and could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.