To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions his Department has instructed the Treasury Solicitor to seek 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 on how many occasions the application was rejected. (220822)

The Department does not instruct the Treasury Solicitor in the appellate courts, preferring instead to conduct nearly all domestic litigation with the help of in-house lawyers.

Information on the number of times the Department itself has sought leave to appeal to the House of Lords, and on the number of times applications have been rejected, could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.