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Legal Opinion

Volume 487: debated on Thursday 29 January 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of external legal services engaged by her Department was in 2007-08. (251364)

The Department's expenditure on external legal services is set out in the following table.

£

Home Office

2,856,099

Identity and Passport Service

3,460,000

Criminal Records Bureau

25,520

This figure does not include the cost to the Home Office of litigation or other legal services provided by the Treasury Solicitor or elsewhere within Government.

Legal costs are incurred in accordance with guidance, issued by Attorney General, on what constitutes core Government business and the use of the private sector for Government legal work.

Contracts for external legal services are awarded on the basis of value for money, in line with the Government's policy on public procurement.