§ Mr. David Youngasked the Attorney-General if he will give the total cost to public funds of the recently ended trial of Mrs. Cynthia Payne.
The Solicitor-GeneralThese cannot be ascertained with any degree of accuracy. The total cost of an individual trial comprises numerous elements, some of which may be part of the general running costs of the several Government Departments concerned and therefore cannot be ascertained as separate components except as an arbitrary estimate. So far as regards individual fees to the legal profession (prosecuting or defending) it is not the practice to publish these, and in any event they could not be ascertained until after taxation of bills of costs, which has not yet taken place. Allowance must also be made for proportion of judicial salaries.