Written question asked by Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party) on Monday, 5 February 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 8 February 2024 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Thursday, 8 February 2024. A substantive answer was provided by Guy Opperman (Conservative) on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Fishing Vessels: Safety

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2024 to Question 12084 on Fishing Vessels: Safety, what the total legal costs incurred by his Department were for (a) investigations of suspected non-use of personal floatation devices and (b) any other purpose by legal firm DWF in each of the last five years.

Answer

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) incurred the following legal expenditure with DWF over the last 5 years:

a) Legal costs in issuing notices related to breach of the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Personal Protective Equipment) Regulations 1999 - £31,104 in 2023. Nil return for information related to prior years.

b) Total legal spend with DWF (inclusive of spend detailed in part a) over the last 5 years is detailed below:

Year	Payment
2018	£9,701
2019	£10,849
2020	£15,079
2021	£13,501
2022	£472,869
2023	£1,382,895

The change in total spend profile with this legal services provider reflects the fact that the MCA has reduced its suppliers to consolidate and reduce overall costs by utilising the framework for procurement of legal services.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 13141
Session: 2023-24
Related items: Fishing Vessels: Safety
Friday, 2 February 2024
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Fishing vessels Legal costs Safety Buoyancy aids
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk

Fishing Vessels: Safety

Secondary information

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