§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proportion of the legal aid bill in 1996–97 and 1997–98 for personal injury cases was for cases won by the plaintiffs and resulted in the expenditure on legal aid being recovered from the defendants at the conclusion of the proceedings. [45166]
§ Mr. HoonThis information is not readily available in the format requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The proportion of the gross legal aid costs recovered in all personal injury cases closed (including medical negligence matters) during 1996/97 can be broken down as follows:
All personal injury litigation (including medical negligence)—cases closed 1996–97 £ million Percentage of gross cost Gross payments 274.1 n/a Costs received 206.7 75 Damages retained 4.1 1 Contributions retained 2 1 Net costs 61.8 23 No equivalent information is currently available for 1997–98.
§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proportion of the legal aid bill in 1996–97 and 1997–98 for personal injury cases was liable to VAT and resulted in a revenue to the Treasury. [45167]
§ Mr. HoonThe information requested is not available since the Legal Aid Board is not required to account separately for VAT.