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Other Departments

There are also GLS lawyers situated in other legal teams in various Departments. These include:

Communications & Electronic Security Group

www.cesg.gov.uk

CESG aims to protect and promote the vital interests of the UK by providing advice and assistance on the security of communications and electronic data. We deliver information assurance policy, services and advice that Government and other customers need to protect vital information services.

Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (CPSI)

www.hmcpsi.gov.uk

HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate is an independent statutory body. The primary role of HMCPSI is to promote the effectiveness and efficiency of the CPS whose statutory function is to prosecute the majority of criminal cases in England and Wales. The CPS is organised into forty-two geographical Areas, each under the leadership of a Chief Crown Prosecutor. Within CPS Headquarters there are five Directorates. There are also three casework divisions which make up its Headquarters; these have staff based in London, Birmingham and York.

The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM)

www.ofgem.gov.uk

Ofgem is the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets which supports the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (“the Authority”) which is a body established by the Utilities Act 2000 to regulate the gas and electricity industries in Great Britain. The Authority has powers under the Gas Act 1986, the Electricity Act 1989, the Utilities Act 2000, the Competition Act 1998, the Enterprise Act 2002 and the Energy Acts of 2004, 2008 and 2010 as well as those arising under European Community legislation.

The principal objective of the Authority is to protect the interests of consumers in relation to electricity or gas by promoting effective competition, wherever appropriate, and regulating the monopoly companies which run the gas and electricity networks. The interests of gas and electricity consumers are their interests taken as a whole, including their interests in the reduction of greenhouse gases and in the security of the supply of gas and electricity to them.

Office of the Official Solicitor and Public Trustee (OffSol)

www.justice.gov.uk/about/ospt

The Official Solicitor to the Senior Courts is an independent statutory office holder appointed by the Lord Chancellor under section 90 of the Senior Courts Act 1981. The Public Trustee is an entirely separate independent statutory office holder appointed by the Lord Chancellor under section 8 of the Public Trustee Act 1906. The Office of the Official Solicitor and the Public Trustee (OffSol) is an “arms length body” of the Ministry of Justice which exists to support those two independent statutory office holders in carrying out their functions.
The Official Solicitor, who can be either a barrister or solicitor, has always occupied an “official” position within, and as an officer of, the superior courts, and is those courts’ own solicitor.
The Lord Chancellor also appoints under the Act a Deputy Official Solicitor who has power to act in the Official Solicitor’s place when the Official Solicitor is not available because of his absence or some other reason or his office is vacant.

The Official Solicitor’s functions are
• to act as last resort litigation friend, and in some cases solicitor, for adults who lack mental capacity and children (other than those who are the subject of child welfare proceedings), in civil, family and Court of Protection proceedings, because they lack decision making capacity in relation to the proceedings or the matters in issue
• to act as last resort (1) administrator of estates, (2) trustee and (3) in relation to Court of Protection clients , financial deputy
• to act as the last resort registered contact in the administration of the Government’s Child Trust Fund scheme for looked after children in England and Wales
• to assist the Senior Courts by acting as advocate to the court, providing advice and assistance to the court, and under Harbin v Masterman making enquiries on behalf of the court.

He is also responsible for the International Child Abduction and Contact Unit and the Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders Unit.

The Public Trustee is a corporation sole. He acts as executor or administrator of estates and as the appointed trustee of settlements. In recent years, he has accepted appointment only as a last resort. Under section 9 Administration of Estates Act 1925 where a person dies intestate his estate vests in the Public Trustee until a grant is taken out; and where a person dies leaving a will but, at the time of his death or before a grant of probate is obtained, there ceases to be a person with power to obtain probate of the will, his estate vests in the Public Trustee until a grant of representation is obtained. Under section 18 Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994 where a person has died and a grant of representation has not yet been filed, service of notices affecting land will be sufficiently served if addressed to the personal representatives of the deceased and left or sent by post to his last known address and a copy of it is served on the Public Trustee. Under Part V of the First Schedule to the Law of Property Act 1925 an open space of land held prior to 1 January 1926 upon a tenancy in common was vested in the Public Trustee upon statutory trusts.

Welsh Government

www.wales.gov.uk

The Legal Services Department (LS) provides legal advice and support to all parts of the Welsh Government. The Director is the chief legal adviser to the Welsh Government and is responsible for the management of the Department, the oversight of litigation involving the Welsh Government and arrangements under which external legal advice is obtained. The Constitution Team of lawyers and the Central Administration Team report directly to the Director. The First Legislative Counsel heads the Office of Legislative Counsel, responsible for the drafting of Assembly Bills, and has broad oversight for maintaining and improving the quality of the Department’s bilingual legislation and legislative procedures. Four Deputy Directors have corporate roles in relation to the running of the Department and are responsible for 12 teams of lawyers, consisting of:-

• Local Government & Communities Team
• Social Care Team
• Commercial Legal Services
• Health & Food Safety Team
• Education (Schools) Team
• Education (Higher & Further Education) Team
• Environment Team
• Planning Team
• Welsh Language, Culture & Sport Team
• Economy Team
• Transport & Housing Team
• Rural Affairs Team

Wales Office

www.walesoffice.gov.uk

The Wales Office came into being on July 1 1999 when most of the powers of the Welsh Office were handed over to the National Assembly for Wales.

Based in Whitehall, the Secretary of State for Wales is the key Government figure liaising with the devolved administration in Wales and represents Wales' interests in the Cabinet and in Parliament.

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)

www.dft.gov.uk/dvla

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport (DfT). The Agency is accountable to the Secretary of State and Ministers and, through them, to Parliament and the public, for efficient and effective management of the Agency and its responsibilities. Our primary aims are to facilitate road safety and general law enforcement by maintaining registers of drivers and vehicles, and to collect vehicle excise duty (car tax).

www.rail-reg.gov.uk

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is the independent safety and economic regulator for Britain's railways. Our main roles in the context of economic regulation are to regulate Network Rail's stewardship of the national rail network, to licence operators of railway assets and to approve track and station access agreements. We also have concurrent jurisdiction with the Office of Fair Trading to investigate potential breaches of the Competition Act 1998 in relation to the railways. In safety regulation, our principal function is to secure the safe operation of the railway system and to protect both those working on the system and members of the public from health and safety risks arising from the railways. We work in a complex, stimulating, and often high-profile environment which is vital to the nation's infrastructure and involves stakeholders from across the rail industry and beyond.

The ORR legal services team is a small, friendly and supportive team of around ten lawyers from a mixture of Civil Service and private practice backgrounds. The team provides legal advice in respect of all ORR's functions as a combined economic and safety regulator. It includes lawyers who provide advice in respect of ORR's wide ranging economic functions. It also includes a team which advises on rail safety enforcement carries out prosecutions for health and safety offences on the railways and has involvement in inquests arising from deaths on the railways. Members of the team work closely with policy and other colleagues in ORR's various directorates and with industry stakeholders.

Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat)

www.ofwat.gov.uk

The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is the economic regulator of the water and sewerage industry in England and Wales. Our role is to seek value for consumers. Before 1 April 2006 our functions rested with the Director General of Water Services. The framework for the changeover was outlined in the Water Act 2003. It provides a similar structure to other economic regulators.

The Board includes the Chairman, a Chief Executive, two executive and four non-executive directors. The Board is responsible for deciding how we carry out our functions and effectively meet our statutory requirements. There is a majority of non-executive members.

We make our decisions independently of the Government, but we work closely with:

the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Government;

the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater), which is an independent organisation that represents customers' interests and deals with your complaints;

the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which sets standards for the quality of drinking water;

the Environment Agency, which regulates and enforces water abstraction consents and quality standards in inland, estuarial and coastal waters.