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21 July 2009 : Column 1156W—continued
Government Legal Service: Complaints
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Solicitor-General what procedures there are within the Government Legal Service for dealing with complaints about non-compliance with the Lexcel standard. [267493]
The Solicitor-General: The procedure in respect of complaints about non-compliance with Lexcel by Treasury Solicitor's Department is that, like any complaint, they should be directed to the Head of Litigation at the Treasury Solicitor's Department or to the Treasury Solicitor for consideration.
Any complaints in respect of other Departments will be dealt with in accordance with the rules of the relevant Department.
Government Legal Service: Manpower
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Solicitor-General what the order of precedence and seniority is of the lawyers within the Government Legal Service; and what procedures are used to reconcile differences of opinion between lawyers of different ranks within the Service. [267508]
The Solicitor-General: The Government Legal Service (GLS) is the organisational name for a group embracing the legal divisions in around 30 Departments, agencies and other organisations across Government. The GLS does not employ staff. Lawyers are employed by Departments, agencies and other organisations across Government. Membership of the GLS is by accreditation of the department or other body to which the lawyer belongs. The organisational management structure and lines of accountability apply to Government lawyers in the same way as they apply to all other civil servants working in the same organisation.
The inter-relationships between Government lawyers' obligations as civil servants and as members of the legal profession are set out in the Guidance Note for Government Lawyers, including the right, and at times the duty, to consult the Law Officers on professional questions.
Government Legal Service: Standards
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Solicitor-General what requirements there are on members of the Government Legal Service who are on the roll of solicitors to report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority the conduct of other members of the Government Legal Service who may not have complied with the professional standards of solicitors. [267507]
The Solicitor-General: Members of the Government Legal Service (GLS) who are enrolled solicitors are under the same requirement as all other enrolled solicitors with regard to the reporting of conduct of solicitors which may have breached professional, standards, whether those solicitors are in the GLS, in in-house practice elsewhere or in private practice.
That requirement derives from the Law Society's Code of Conduct which requires the reporting of serious misconduct and serious financial difficulty.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Solicitor-General what steps have been taken to promote legal professionalism within the Government Legal Service. [267547]
The Solicitor-General: The members of the Government Legal Service (GLS) take their obligation to promote the professionalism of their legal staff very seriously. All Government lawyers are bound by the codes of conduct applicable to their branch of the profession, including the duty to undertake Continuing Professional Development. They are supported in this through access to a tailored programme of Professional Training for Government Lawyers-designed by the GLS and delivered through the National School of Government.
Legal Costs
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Solicitor-General in how many cases costs have been awarded against the Crown Prosecution Service in each of the last three years. [285274]
The Solicitor-General:
The following table provides a summary of the total number of payments made and the value of costs awarded against the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the last three financial years. The CPS
holds no central record of the number of cases in respect of which costs were awarded against the Service. The information is held on individual case files and could only be retrieved by examining every relevant file in each CPS office.
| Value (£000) | Number | |
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information is comprehensive and correct, but a full reconciliation against the original transactions has not been performed as this would incur disproportionate costs.
Legal Profession
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Solicitor-General what the (a) employment status and (b) requirement to pay national insurance contributions is of counsel whom the Government restrict from undertaking work for others. [267494]
The Solicitor-General: The two First Treasury Counsel (who undertake exclusively civil litigation in which the Crown has an interest) are self-employed barristers. Their national insurance position is a matter between them and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
Negligence: Legal Costs
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Solicitor-General what provision has been made by the Treasury Solicitor to meet any professional negligence claims and complaints in each of the last three years; and what provision has been made for the next three years. [267046]
The Solicitor-General: The Treasury Solicitor's Department has made no provision to meet any professional negligence claims in the last three years and has no plans to make any such provision.
The Treasury Solicitor's Department, in common with other Departments, has a formal procedure for external complaints, details of which are available on its website.
Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Jon Trickett: To ask the Solicitor-General how many defendants were sentenced under the provisions of section 20 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 after a plea bargain by the (a) Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) nationally and (b) West Yorkshire CPS in 2007-08. [285496]
The Solicitor-General: Plea bargaining is not a term recognised by the criminal law of England and Wales. The decision of a prosecutor to accept guilty pleas to offences other than those charged, or on a different factual basis, is governed by section 10 of the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the Attorney-General's guidelines on the acceptance of pleas and the Prosecutor's role in the sentencing exercise.
Crown Prosecution Service records include a count of the number of offences in which a prosecution commenced under s20 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and these figures are as follows. However, CPS records include no particulars of the outcome of proceedings at this level of detail, and to obtain this information would incur disproportionate cost.
| Offences reaching a first hearing in magistrates courts | ||
| S18 Offences A gainst t he Person Act 1861 | ||
| CPS England and Wales | CPS West Yorkshire | |
| S20 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 | ||
| CPS England and Wales | CPS West Yorkshire | |
Jon Trickett: To ask the Solicitor-General how many defendants over the age of 21 years were charged with an offence of grievous bodily harm under section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 in 2007-08; and how many such defendants subsequently agreed to plead guilty to, and were convicted of, an offence under section 20 of that Act after discussions with the prosecuting authorities. [282017]
The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service's system for managing its case data includes a count of the number of offences for which a prosecution is commenced under section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and these figures are as follows. However, the case management system does not record particulars of subsequent amendments to the charges brought. While the CPS records both the outcome of proceedings and the age of defendants, this information is captured at defendant level, not at specific charge level.
| Offences against the Person Act 1861 (18) | |
| Number | |
Prosecutions
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Solicitor-General how many prosecutions brought by the Crown Prosecution Service have not resulted in a conviction in each of the last three years. [285273]
The Solicitor-General: The following table shows, for each of the last three years, the number of defendants prosecuted by the CPS whose case was completed in magistrates courts and in the Crown court. These are divided into convictions, inclusive of guilty pleas as well as cases convicted after trial, and unsuccessful outcomes, representing all outcomes other than a conviction.
| Magistrates court | Crown court | All courts | ||||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
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