§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Solicitor-General which companies or partnerships have seconded staff to the Law Officers' Departments since May 1997; how many staff have been seconded; and who pays for seconded staff. [128470]
The Solicitor-GeneralSecondments and attachments are part of the Interchange initiative, which promotes the exchange of people and good practice between the civil service and other organisations. Before an Interchange can occur, all parties must be satisfied that no conflict of interest arises.
Since May 1997, there have been no secondments of staff from outside the civil service to either the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers or the Treasury Solicitor's Department.
Since May 1997, there have been four staff on secondment to the Serious Fraud Office. Two of the secondments had begun before May 1997. KPMG, Hacker Young, Pannell Kerr Foster (all accountancy firms) and Allen and Overy (a firm of solicitors) each sent one of their staff on secondment. The Serious Fraud Office bore all the cost of the staff member seconded from Allen and Overy and in the other cases made a major contribution to the cost.
One person has been seconded to the Crown Prosecution Service from the Royal Bank of Scotland for a period of three weeks. The Royal Bank of Scotland bore the cost of this secondment.