§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will identify the(a) cost and (b) number of hours claimed for under the duty solicitor scheme in (i) police stations and (ii) magistrates' courts in each year since 1997. [185929]
§ Mr. LammyThe table shows the cost under the duty solicitor scheme of work carried out in police stations and magistrates' courts. The LSC records the total costs claimed and then reviews the number of hours on audit. It is not possible to calculate the number of hours from the figures because different combinations of rates are claimed.
729W
£ million Police station duty solicitor scheme
Magistrates' court duty solicitor scheme
1997–98 100 15.22 1998–99 105.11 16.18 1999–2000 109.07 25.39 2000–01 117.34 148.78
£ million Police station duty solicitor scheme
Magistrates' court duty solicitor scheme
2001–02 2154.39 27.86 2002–03 168.76 24.21 2003–04 175.51 23.68 1 From November 1999 the duty solicitor payment system was also used to make payments to solicitors attending Early First Hearings and Early Administrative Hearings, resulting in sharp increases in both the number and average cost of claims paid. However, when the LSC introduced contracting in 2001 it split this work out from the court duty solicitor role, therefore the costs decreased. 2 From the introduction of contracting in April 2001, claims were consolidated so that the police station claims also included all other pre-charge work, not just advice and assistance at the police station.
(a) Equal pay (b) Sex discrimination
(c) Race discrimination
(d) Disability discrimination
(e) Unfair dismissal
Total 1997 — — 2 — 1 3 1998 — — 1 2 5 8 1999 — 9 1 8 8 26 2000 — 2 2 4 2 10 2001 — 2 4 2 5 13 2002 — 20 4 2 8 34 2003 1 — 1 3 7 12 2004 — 1 — 1 5 7 Total 1 34 15 22 41 113