§ Ms Roseanna CunninghamTo ask the Solicitor-General what his estimate is of the value of land and 231W property held (i) in Scotland and (ii) in total by (a) the Crown Prosecution Service, (b) the Serious Fraud Office and (c) the Treasury Solicitor's Department. [99734]
The Solicitor-GeneralThe Law Officers' Departments, comprising the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the Treasury Solicitor's Department, and the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers do not have property interests in Scotland.
CPS has an interest in 105 properties. Of these, 91 are leasehold interests, 10 are Crown freeholds held by other Departments and four are Crown freeholds held by the CPS.
The total value of the four freeholds held by the CPS was calculated to be £3.6 million in 1998, by property consultants employed for this purpose. Calculations for the value of CPS leasehold interests could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The Treasury Solicitor's Department holds property in England and Wales with a value of £9.3 million at 31 March 1999.
The SFO has one leasehold property whose value currently is nil, in that the terms of the lease, entered into in 1988, exceed current market rental values. This lease expires on 24 December 2012, and the annual rental is £1.5 million.
The Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers has one leasehold property, the value of which is currently estimated at £100,000.