Legal expenditure
Case reference FOI2026/01354
Received 1 July 2026
Published 28 July 2026
Request
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I would be grateful if you could provide the following information regarding your authority's legal expenditure. For each of the last five financial years for which data are available, please provide:
* The total amount spent on external legal advice; and,
* Where possible, a breakdown of that expenditure by category. For example (where recorded):
* Litigation and dispute resolution
* Employment law
* Planning and property
* Adult and children's services
* Procurement and commercial
* Governance and constitutional matters
* Other legal services (please specify if possible).
* If you also have the figure please provide the cost of any internal legal function within the local authority e.g. in-house legal team.
Response
Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please find the answers to your queries below:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I would be grateful if you could provide the following information regarding your authority's legal expenditure. For each of the last five financial years for which data are available, please provide:
* The total amount spent on external legal advice; and,
* Where possible, a breakdown of that expenditure by category. For example (where recorded):
* Litigation and dispute resolution
* Employment law
* Planning and property
* Adult and children's services
* Procurement and commercial
* Governance and constitutional matters
* Other legal services (please specify if possible).
Please find this information below:
|
Year |
Total Spend: |
|
2021/22 |
|
|
Planning |
£599,005.90 |
|
Property |
£195,406.24 |
|
Legal Services (Children's Social Care) |
£41,048.60 |
|
Total: |
£835,460.74 |
|
2022/23 |
|
|
Planning |
£300,834.29 |
|
Property |
£97,575.56 |
|
Legal Services (Children's Social Care) |
£6,697.50 |
|
Total: |
£405,107.35 |
|
2023/24 |
|
|
Planning |
£1,328,363.67 |
|
Property |
£492,848.03 |
|
Legal Services |
£0.00 |
|
Total: |
£1,821,211.70 |
|
2024/25 |
|
|
Planning |
£376,933.32 |
|
Property |
£334,968.83 |
|
Legal Services (Children's Social Care) |
£25,177.50 |
|
Total: |
£737,079.65 |
|
2025/26 |
|
|
Planning |
£131,222.71 |
|
Property |
£133,148.58 |
|
Legal Services (Children's Social Care) |
£2,294.00 |
|
Total: |
£266,665.29 |
* If you also have the figure please provide the cost of any internal legal function within the local authority e.g. in-house legal team.
Information about the budgeted cost of our internal Legal Department is published annually in our Budget books, which are available via the following website:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/17284/Council-budgets-and-spending
In particular, please see page 28 of the 2025/26 budget book.
Additionally, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee regularly meets to review and monitor our quarterly outturn positions, to assess our planned spending against our actual spending. This information is also published on our website and is available via the following link:
https://democracy.guildford.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?AIId=19557
In particular, please see page 4 in relation to the latest information for quarter 4 of 2025/26 for Democracy, Law & People Services.
As such, the information you require can be found from publicly available sources and consequentially under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Guildford Borough Council
Documents
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