(1)   How much did the Minister’s department spend during 2003-2004 on outsourced (a) barristers and (b) solicitors (including private firms, the Australian Government Solicitor, and any others).

(2)   How much did the Minister’s department spend on internal legal services.

(3)   What is the Minister’s department’s projected expenditure on legal services for the 2004-2005 financial year.

(1)   The Department of Veterans’ Affairs spent a total of approximately $9.0M for the purchase of external legal services (which includes disbursements and engaging counsel) in the 2003-2004 financial year.  It is not possible to separately distinguish between the legal costs spent on barristers and solicitors for a number of reasons including that:

(a)   these costs often appear on the one invoice with the consequence that every individual invoice for this period would need to be re-examined to accurately specify the amount that was paid directly to a barrister as separate from the other costs and disbursements included on that invoice; and

(b)   AGS officers and other legal service providers can appear in a matter as both a barrister and a solicitor due to the fused nature of the legal profession in many jurisdictions.

(2)   The Legal Services Group is the primary area in the Department for providing internal legal services on a wide range of matters (excluding the Military Compensation and Rehabilitation Service (MCRS) matters which are dealt with by the Comcare external legal panel).  The total budget for 2003-2004 for the Legal Services Group was approximately $2.0M (this is made up of salary and administrative costs but excludes desktop and voice costs and the costs of the SES Band 1 Manager).  There are also other areas in the Department who undertake some work of a legal nature and may be capable of falling within the phrase “internal legal services”.  For example, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs uses APS employees who are not legally qualified or admitted to practice to undertake a range of tasks which could be described as involving work of a legal nature.  Examples of this include:

(a)   the development of legislation proposals;

(b)   appearances before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal as advocates who representative the Repatriation Commission;

(c)   in relation to the MCRS undertaking the management of cases, the reconsideration of primary decisions and the supervision of the external legal panel; and

(d)   the management and development of contracts.

(3)   The estimated expenditure for the 2004-2005 financial year in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs is approximately $9.1M  (which includes $2.3M for the Department and $6.8M for MCRS and the Military Rehabilation and Compensation Act 2004) for the costs and disbursements of external legal providers and counsel, and internal costs of approximately $2.1M for the Legal Services Group