To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department spent on external legal advice in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009. (318798)

In the past two financial years the Department for Transport (including its agencies) has spent the following on external legal services:

2007-08: £3,297,415.19

2008-09: £12,410,668.11

The reason for the significant difference in spend from 2007-08 to 2008-09 is due to change to the Department’s accounting system in 2008 which culminated in some historical data not being available. Recovery of this data could have been obtained only at disproportionate cost.