HC Deb 29 April 1999 vol 330 c255W
Mr. Dismore

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales 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. [81767]

Mr. Michael

The Treasury Solicitor's Department, acting on behalf of the Welsh Office, 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 Attorney-General's approval, or that of the Solicitor-General, is required before a Queen's Counsel can be instructed to appear for any Government Department in civil litigation.

In determining the level of counsel to use, the Department considers the individual circumstances of each case. Amongst other things it takes 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.

For the years in question Queen's Counsel were instructed as follows:

  • 1997: 3 occasions
  • 1998: 4 occasions
  • 1999: 3 occasions.

Costs paid to date in instructing Queen's Counsel, excluding Counsel engaged on the North Wales Child Abuse Inquiry, are currently £83,376 for the years in question. So far as the costs arising from the North Wales Inquiry are concerned, this is information which cannot be extracted from the file and invoice records without incurring disproportionate cost.