MPS legal expenses in 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026342

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. In 2021, how much money did the Metropolitan Police spend (in total) on legal expenses?

2. In 2021, how much money did the Metropolitan Police pay (in total) in civil claims? You might have a figure for damages and/or damages and legal costs and/or civil claims as a whole. Please provide whatever relevant figures you have and specify what they relate to.

3. What other categories does the Metropolitan Police break its legal expenses down to? (e.g. in-house staff costs; costs of external counsel etc)

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - In 2021, how much money did the Metropolitan Police spend (in total) on legal expenses?

It is not possible to provide a full picture of the costs incurred as in-house costs are not held, as explained below. We can, however, provide the cost of external professional and counsel fees.

In-house Costs – Met staff and facilities
Information not held. Basic costs such as facilities, eg, stationery, etc, are not recorded on a granular level. In relation to staff costs, a number of in-house staff may have completed work associated with the case, including say Admin Assistants. Fee earners (lawyers and paralegals) are the only ones who record the time they spend working on each case. We can supply the total amount of time spent on the cases by those fee earners, but it is not possible to provide the cost of that time without calculating it using the Met’s Ready Reckoner. Therefore the cost of Directorate of Legal Services fee earners is not information that is ‘held’, as we would have to produce information to answer the question.

External Costs - Counsel
The total payments made in relation to counsel (barrister) fees for the calendar year 1 January -31 December 2021 are £3,253,041.

External Costs – Professional Fees
The total payments made in relation to professional fees in the calendar year 1 January - 31 December 2021 are £2,479,069.

Q2 - In 2021, how much money did the Metropolitan Police pay (in total) in civil claims? You might have a figure for damages and/or damages and legal costs and/or civil claims as a whole. Please provide whatever relevant figures you have and specify what they relate to.

The total settlement payments (by way of settlement agreement or court award) in civil claims’ paid in the calendar year 1 January - 31 December 2021 are £8,009,941.81.

*Malfeasance, Public Liability and Traffic claims (threatened and issued civil actions)
It is not possible to provide a full picture of the costs incurred in civil claims as in-house costs are not held, as explained below. We can, however, provide the cost of external professional and counsel fees.

In-house Costs – Met staff and facilities
Information not held. Basic costs such as facilities, eg, stationery, etc, are not recorded on a granular level. In relation to staff costs, a number of in-house staff may have completed work associated with the case, including say Admin Assistants. Fee earners (lawyers and paralegals) are the only ones who record the time they spend working on each case. We can supply the total amount of time spent on the cases by those fee earners, but it is not possible to provide the cost of that time without calculating it using the Met’s Ready Reckoner. Therefore the cost of Directorate of Legal Services fee earners is not information that is ‘held’, as we would have to produce information to answer the question.

External Costs - Counsel
The total payments made in relation to counsel (barrister) fees in civil claims* in the calendar year 1 January - 31 December 2021 are £467,773.44

External Costs – Professional Fees
The total payments made in relation to professional fees in civil claims* in the calendar year 1 January -31 December 2021 are £1,438,783.54

Q3 - What other categories does the Metropolitan Police break its legal expenses down to? (e.g. in-house staff costs; costs of external counsel etc)

Please see questions 1 and 2 above.
The above response relates to legal expenses incurred by the Directorate of Legal Services and Insurance & Claims.