FOI Request - Legal Staff and Information

Request 101003633572

1. How many employees are part of your legal team?

2. Do you use external sources for legal advice and if so, what is the average monthly spend on external resources?

3. Do you use a legal research platform and if so, how much do you spend per month on this platform?

4. Who is responsible for the legal costs associated with the above questions?

Response 30-09-2024

1 Legal Services Manager, 2.8 Senior Solicitors, 5.5 solicitors (4 of these posts are currently vacant), 2 Paralegals and 2 Licensing Standards officers

2. We use external sources – procured through a framework – current use is much higher than would normally be the case given staff vacancies – until recently had been 5 staff down and still 4 down – spend is also dependant on the nature of the issues that arise – e.g PLIs, complex litigation
Costs fluctuate but in recent years can range between £12k to £23k – these are estimates

3. We use Linets – it costs around £300 per month and covers a number of users

4. For external advice – routine legal work that is being outsourced due to lack of capacity is paid by legal, more complex/specialist work is charged to services
Legal meet the cost of Linets