Examination of Witnesses (Questions 240-246)
RT HON
LORD FALCONER
OF THOROTON
QC AND SIR
HAYDEN PHILLIPS
GCB
8 JUNE 2004
Q240 Chairman: Do you now have a policy
on that or is that still being evolved?
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: We
have a policy that there should be full cost recovery across the
civil litigation system of the costs of the Supreme Court insofar
as they relate to civil cases. That is the policy. How that is
to be done between the Supreme Court fees and the wider fees has
not yet been resolved, but I have got no plans to increase the
level of fees for the Supreme Court, so it would have to be done
primarily by increasing the civil litigation fees.
Q241 Mr Soley: Are you actually saying
that you are going to try and do a comparison of the costs for
the new Supreme Court with what the costs are now?
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: Yes.
Q242 Mr Soley: How on earth are you going
to strip out House of Lords' costs as they are now?
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: We
do the best that we can in relation to it, but that, as I understand
it, is what the Chairman and Mr Bottomley have asked for and that
is what we will try and do in relation to that.
Q243 Mr Soley: Try and do it, so be it,
but I have to say that it has to be a terribly arbitrary exercise
given the nature of the costs of the House of Lords.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: Yes,
I agree with that.
Sir Hayden Phillips: We have done
quite a lot of work with the Judicial Office and with the House
of Lords' authorities and we will obviously let you see the results
of that work and you will see the assumptions we have had to make
in order to make the calculation we need to do.
Q244 Mr Soley: You add up the costs of
the House of Lords and divide it by 1,000, or whatever number
of Lords it is. Is that roughly right?
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: The
point does not arise at the moment for the reason we started with,
that we are not trying to recover the costs of the final Court
of Appeal of the House of Lords at the moment because we are not
paying them.
Q245 Chairman: In asking that question,
I think we were conscious that a fair amount of this information
is available, is in the system and is material which you have
had to use in order to begin to make estimates for what the new
Supreme Court would cost.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: Yes.
Q246 Chairman: Thank you very much, Lord
Chancellor and Sir Hayden. We expect to see you again on this
issue several times, I suspect, and on others as the show goes
on. Sir Hayden, we will see you back once more before your impending
retirement and we look forward to that.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: This
is his penultimate appearance before you.
Chairman: Thank you.
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