Departmental Legal Costs

Pete Wishart
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what expenditure his Department and its agencies have incurred on external legal advice and representation in each year since 1997; and for what purposes such services have been commissioned.

Mr. Bob Ainsworth
The information with regard to expenditure my Department and its agencies have incurred on external legal advice and representation in each year since 1997 is not held centrally, and due to re-organisation over the period in question could only be provided at disproportionate cost.