Jenny Willott

Liberal Democrats | Cardiff Central

Intervention on Ministerial Statement, UK Supreme Court

Mr. Jim Cunningham (Coventry, South) (Lab): Will my hon. Friend be a little clearer about the housing of the supreme court? Can he tell us how many buildings are on any list that he may have and what he estimates to be the running costs, both in revenue and capital terms?

Mr. Leslie: I want to ensure that the House has an opportunity to look at our proposals, but I know that my hon. Friend will understand that, at this stage, not least given that we are moving forward with legislation shortly, it would be potentially prejudicial to our commercial position if we were to reveal all the different potential sites that we were considering, in case the costs then escalated or, conversely, location opportunities were closed off to us. I hope that he will understand that we do not wish to go into such detail at this stage, but I intend to ensure that we have the opportunity to disclose our preferred location to the House and explore those matters in more detail at the appropriate time.