Health and Social Care Act 2012
Health
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost to the public purse has been of the Government's appeals against publication of his Department's risk register for the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Simon Burns (Minister of State (Health), Health; Chelmsford, Conservative)
The cost of the Government's decision to appeal against the publication of the transition risk register has yet to be calculated in full detail. The latest (March 2012) estimate of counsel's fee for work undertaken is £50,359. This does not include the costs of directly employed departmental employees who have been engaged on the issue, or of departmental legal staff, the services of whom are received by the Department of Health via a block service level agreement (SLA) with the Department for Work and Pensions. This means that Government lawyers working on freedom of information requests do so under the block SLA without costs being apportioned to the Department for those requests.