Total spend on external legal advice since April 1st, 2020: FOI release

Information requested

1) The total spend, broken down by financial or calendar year, on external legal advice since April 1, 2020. (I.e. 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23 to date)

a) Please break this down by the list of associated cases or disputes, and their individual cost.

b) If possible, please provide the final settlement or damages or other court mandated payment cost for any cases during which external legal advice was sought. If it is not possible to link each case to a settlement agreement, please provide the total cost of the settlements or payments.

Response

1) The total spend, broken down by financial or calendar year, on external legal advice since April 1, 2020. (I.e. 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23 to date)

1) Please see the below table for a breakdown of spend by financial year:

Financial year	Total spend on external legal advice (£)
2020/21	4661.40
2021/22	975.00
2022/23	0.00
Grand total	5636.40

a) Please break this down by the list of associated cases or disputes, and their individual cost.

a) In 2021/22, £195 was spent on advice relating to an employment matter. Aside from this, none of the listed expenditure related to specific legal cases or disputes. Expenditure primarily related to decision making on Forestry Grant Scheme applications.

b) If possible, please provide the final settlement or damages or other court mandated payment cost for any cases during which external legal advice was sought. If it is not possible to link each case to a settlement agreement, please provide the total cost of the settlements or payments.

b) No settlements, damages or other court mandated payment costs were paid over the period in question.

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