Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department’s legal costs were in Ashley Hurley, Mary Jarrett and Lee Palmer v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, CO/2717/2014 and CO/3220/2014.

Justin Tomlinson

The government has to date spent approximately £53,000 on legal costs associated with the case of Hurley and Others v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015]

It should be noted that this figure includes VAT where this is payable (e.g. on Counsel’s fees) but do not include costs attributable to the time spent by government advisory lawyers on these cases. Time spent by such advisory lawyers is not recorded in a manner that allows it to be attributed to individual cases. Nor does it include any costs payable by the Secretary of State to the other parties to these cases or received from the other parties.