FOI Request - Expenditure on Legal Services

Request 101004025493

I request the following information relating to Moray Council's expenditure on legal services.

1. For each of the last five completed financial years, please provide:

a) The total annual expenditure on external legal services, including solicitors, advocates, counsel, legal consultants and other third-party legal providers.

b) The total annual budget and actual expenditure for the Council's internal Legal Services department, including staffing costs where separately recorded.

c) The total number of solicitors (or solicitor equivalents) employed by the Council during each financial year.

d) The names of external legal firms instructed by the Council during each financial year together with the total amount paid to each firm during that year.

e) Any recorded policy, guidance or criteria governing when matters are referred to external legal advisers rather than being handled by the Council's own Legal Services department.

f) Any recorded information showing the proportion of litigation or legal matters handled:

(i) internally;
ii) by external solicitors.

2. For each of the last five completed financial years, please provide the total number of matters referred to external legal providers, broken down by category where this information is recorded (for example, litigation, employment, planning, property, governance, child protection, or any other recorded categories).

a) Please provide any scheme of delegation, policy, procedure, guidance, or other recorded information identifying:

b) who is authorised to instruct external solicitors on behalf of Moray Council;

c) the circumstances in which external legal providers may be instructed;

d) and any approval or authorisation process required before external legal services are commissioned.