To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to his answer of 17 May 2007, Official Report, column 875W, on prison service: unfair dismissal, for what reason this information is not collected in this form by the Treasury Solicitor; and if he will make a statement. (168542)

I have been asked to reply.

Compensation and associated legal costs are met by the client department out of its appropriation, not by the Treasury Solicitor. There has thus been no operational reason coming from within his own Department for the Treasury Solicitor to collate and monitor these payments. As there has been no call from client departments to produce figures, the Treasury Solicitor has not been able to justify the commitment of public funds to that end. For this reason, the figures requested are not held by the Treasury Solicitor’s Department in the form requested and to attempt to gather them now could be done only at disproportionate cost.