To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many times the Government have sought leave to appeal to the House of Lords from (a) the Court of Appeal and (b) the House of Lords itself in each of the last 10 years; and which of those applications were rejected. (205352)

I have been asked to reply.

The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. While the Treasury Solicitor's Department represents most Government departments making applications for leave to appeal to the House of Lords, it does not represent all departments. Applications for leave to appeal to the House of Lords are made on behalf of client departments by the Treasury Solicitor on instructions and the decisions on these applications are communicated to the client departments accordingly. As there has been no call from client departments to produce the figures, the Treasury Solicitor has not been able to justify the commitment of public funds to collate and record these applications from its own records, and from the records of other Government departments that have made such applications, in the form requested.