§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the President of the Council how many hours have been spent by Parliamentary Counsel in preparing(a) Government legislation announced in the Queen's speeches, (b) private members' Bills, (c) Law Commission work and (d) private legislation, and what proportion of Parliamentary Counsel's time was spent on each, in each of the parliamentary sessions (i) 1997–98, (ii) 1998–99 and (iii) 1999–2000 to date. [113349]
§ Mrs. BeckettThe Parliamentary Counsel Office answers to the Prime Minister, but I am replying to this question since it relates to the Government's legislative programme.
Information is not available on the number of hours spent by Parliamentary Counsel on different types of legislation. However, a reasonable indication of how the Counsel are deployed is given by their location. Counsel at 36 Whitehall work on Government Bills and on Private 785W Members' Bills supported by the Government. Other Counsel are on loan to the Law Commission, to the Inland Revenue's Tax Law Rewrite Project and to the Department of Trade and Industry's Company Law Review.
The following table shows the total number of Counsel in these locations in the 1997–98 and 1998–99 Sessions (as at 1 January) and at present. The figures exclude Scottish and Northern Ireland Parliamentary Counsel.
Deployment of Parliamentary Counsel by type of work (numbers of Counsel, full-time equivalents, as at 1 January 1998, 1 January 1999 and at present Type of legislation Counsel 1997–98 Percentage Counsel 1998–99 Percentage Counsel Session 1999–20001 Percentage Government Bills (est.) 227½ 77 224½ 73 230 80 Private Members' Bills supported by the Government (est.) 21 3 21½ 5 2½ 1 Sub-total 36 Whitehall 28½ 80 26 78 30½ 81 Law Commission 4½ 13 5 15 4 11 Inland Revenue 2½ 7 2½ 7 2½ 7 DTI — — — — ½ 1 Total 35½ 100 33½ 100 37½ 100 1 To date 2 Rounded to the nearest ½ Although there are minor fluctuations from year to year, the figures show that, since the start of the 1997–98 Session, about one-fifth of the Parliamentary Counsel have been engaged on work for the Law Commission, for the Inland Revenue Tax Law Rewrite Project or (since the beginning of this month) for the DTI's Company Law Review. Some four-fifths of Counsel work on the Government's Bills and Private Members' Bills, with on average about 97 per cent. of that work concentrated on the Government's Bills.