The growth in the number of legally qualified staff employed in the Law Officers Department in the last ten years

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO H.M. ATTORNEY GENERAL BY DEPUTY R.G. LE HÉRISSIER OF ST. SAVIOUR

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 19th JANUARY 2010

Question

Would H.M. Attorney General provide a graph showing, year by year, the growth in the number of legally qualified staff employed in the Law Officers Department in the last ten years?

How many of the legally qualified staff recruited over the last ten years have, at some point, been Members of Chambers at 7 Bedford Row?

What payments have been made over each of the last 3 years to Counsel at Bedford Row and what percentage does this constitute of the total amounts paid for external legal advice over each of the last 3 years?

Would H.M. Attorney General provide a copy of the tendering document used for inviting applications to provide external legal advice?

What sums, if any, have been paid, over each of the last 3 years to legal firms based in Jersey for criminal prosecution and defense work and would H.M. Attorney General identify the firm in each year which received the highest payment?

Answer

In order to answer the parts of the question more easily we have numbered the paragraphs of the question.

1. T heDepartmenthastakentheterm legally qualified' to mean those staff having at least a law degreeor a professional legal qualification in Jersey orin any other jurisdiction.

W h en a civil servants move from one department to another, their personnel file moves with them. The

Department has done its best to check the information in this graph but in a very few cases, it was not possible to verify the qualifications of some former members of staff.

Law Officers' Department

30

27

26

25 25

25

21

20

20 18 18

16 16

15 15

15 Legally Qualified Staff 10

Number of Staff

5 0

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Year (1st Jan)

2. O f the legally qualified staff recruited over the last ten years,three have at somepoint been membersof 7 Bedford Row.Atany one time,upto two membersofstaff have previously been membersof 7 Bedford Row.
3. P a ymentsmadebytheLawOfficers' Department to counsel who are members of 7 BedfordRowover the last the three years andthepercentagesthese payments constitute of the total amounts paid for external legal advice are as follows:

T h e se payments were made by the Law Officers' Department during 2007, 2008 and 2009 to eleven

barristers at 7 Bedford Row who worked on seven separate investigations or prosecutions. As a result in part of the work done in those investigations or prosecutions some £11,089,167 has been seized and/or confiscated from the subjects of those investigations and prosecutions over the same period.  None of these payments made by the Law Officers' Department related to the Historic Child Abuse Enquiry.  In 2008, the Law Officers' Department made a single payment of £875 to leading counsel at 7 Bedford Row in respect of an advice relating to the Child Abuse Enquiry.

4. T here is notenderingdocumentation. Selection of external lawyers toprovideadviceand assistance is made on the basis of choosing persons who are competent to advise in highly specialist relevantareasand who provide good value for money.We are advised that this is similar to the systemusedbytheCrown Prosecution Service in the UK. 7 Bedford Rowis a specialised criminal and common law chambers with considerable expertise in all areasof the criminal law. In addition, membersofthosechambershavegained over timesubstantialunderstandingof the Jerseylegalsystem and thedifferencesbetweentheIsland's legislation and practices and those oftheUK,andas such have been found to offer clear, prompt and useful advice. Further, the Departmentusesandhasused – though to a more limited extent than thoseat 7

Bedford Row - other chambers of barristers who are able to offer skills and experience appropriate to the needs of

the Department in respect of the particular advice required, and is therefore aware of the general charges levied by barristers, and is able to say that 7 Bedford Row provides good value for money.

P a y ments for external legal advice are made from the Court and Case Costs budget whose expenditure has

been reviewed on a number of occasions, most recently by Moore Stephens in December 2009. Their final report is currently awaited.

A n internal audit report of Court and Case Costs expenditure carried out by BDO Alto in February 2009

noted:

" E n gagement of third parties as prescribed in Financial Direction 5.1 is frequent practice for the Law Officers' Department. Due to the nature of the cases, external expertise is often required and due to their urgency and confidentiality it is not possible to tender' for those engagements. Known, reliable third parties are used, being based on their experience of Jersey law and on recommendation. However, there is currently no process for documenting the reason for by-passing the tender stage as required by the financial direction."

B D O Alto recommended, and the Department has accepted, that:

" T h e CMP's (case management plans) will include a section documenting the decision making (including cost considerations) and approval of the appointment of third party service providers in line with the financial direction."

5. A s the Historic ChildAbuse investigation is separately funded, the Department has setout the figures relating to prosecutionsother than in respect of the Historic Child Abuse investigation and given the figures for that investigation separately.

T o ta l amounts paid to Jersey legal firms for prosecution work (other than in respect of the Historic Child

Abuse investigation) during the last three years are as follows:

2 0 0 7: £  1,342,379 2 0 0 8: £  1,006,822

2 0 0 9: £  1,323,079

In 2 007 the firm that received the highest level of fees was Baker Platt, and in 2008 and 2009 the firm that

received the highest level of fees was Walker s.

In 2 007 Baker Platt was dealing with the prosecution of Peter Michel and Simone Gallichan. In 2008 and

2009 Walker s was dealing with the prosecution of Curtis Warr en and others. The total payments will include payments for disbursements incurred by the Jersey Legal firms in addition to legal fees.

A m  ounts paid to Jersey firms in connection with the Historic Child Abuse investigation and prosecutions

over the last three years were as follows:

2 0 0 7: £ N IL

2 0 0 8: £ 9 25,122 2 0 0 9: £ 1 ,046,430

In 2 008 the firm receiving the highest level of fees was Baker Platt. In 2009 it was the only firm dealing

with the prosecutions in this matter.

T h e above information is for payments made by the Law Officers' Department for prosecution and investigation costs only. The Law Officers' Department has no control over defence costs, the appointment

of lawyers to represent persons accused of crimes or for the allocation of payment to those lawyers. The payment of defence costs is dealt with by the Judicial Greffe and the Law Officers' Department holds no

records about it. In an effort to assist members, however, the following information on defence costs has been

supplied by the Judicial Greffe to the Law Officers' Department to be included in this answer.

A m  ounts paid to Jersey firms for defence work in the last three years were as follows:

2 0 0 7: £ 1,509,673 2 0 0 8: £ 1,191,741 2 0 0 9: £ 2,205,272

In 2 007 the firm that received the highest level of fees was Vibert s and in 2008 and 2009 the firm that

received the highest level of fees was Voisin & Co.

M e m bers should note that, as for prosecution costs, disbursements are included in the figures for the sums

paid to legal firms based in Jersey. In the context of criminal defence costs, the main category of disbursements would be payments to expert witnesses called on behalf of the defence and any specialist advice received from English counsel.