Cost of Justices Robes

Nick Leaton made this Freedom of Information request to Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

The request was successful.

From: Nick Leaton

19 November 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

I notice the 11 new supreme court justices are wearing some rather
snazzy new robes.

http://tinyurl.com/ylhb7kv

Can you tell me the total cost of the robes?

Yours faithfully,

Nick Leaton

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From: Achow, Ann
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

3 December 2009

Dear Mr Leaton,

Thank you for your e mail of 19 November.

The total cost including VAT of the robes for the 12 Justices of the Supreme Court was £137,956.

You may also be interested to know that the Justices do not wear robes while they sit in court and that this continues the practice of the Law Lords.
However the Justices recognised the need to have a robe for certain ceremonial occasions, such as the opening of Parliament, and ceremonies around the beginning of the legal year. They therefore have robes which are the same shape as classic judges' robes. The robes are made from black brocade with gold lace and some gold ornamentation on the sleeves with the Supreme Court emblem embroidered on the back. They have been designed specifically to last at least 50 years. The robes do not belong to the individual Justices but to the Supreme Court so that they will be passed down from Justice to Justice as individual Justice's service at the Supreme Court comes to an end.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A Achow
Departmental Records Officer
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Parliament Square
London
SW1P 3BD

Tel: 020 7960 1983

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david schiller left an annotation ( 7 December 2009)

Supreme court robery?

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Nick Leaton left an annotation ( 7 December 2009)

Quite.

I don't the the FOI department at the Supreme court gets irony.

The excuse that they hardly wear the gowns is part of the point. It's a huge sum of money for something that is rarely used.

We have a real case of Nero Complex in UK government. Carry on spending whilst the rest of society suffers.

This spending is on the credit card. Just to service the debt on this spending costs over 6,200 pounds a year - forever

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david schiller left an annotation ( 7 December 2009)

I agree with you Nick- except...

'Economics is Bunkum'

I realise, as a society, we accept that 'money' is the basis on which Planet Earth revolves- it isn't

I do not think it overstates the situation to say that until we realise that 'money' is the God we are all programmed to respect, the Planet will not continue to support Human life for much longer

Money has, necessarily, replaced simple physical power to maintain our 'slave society' and until the 'establishment'realise they also will perish, there is little hope of saving our Planet

We now actually vote for employment (slavery)

It's not worth bothering!!
Don't they look important in their robes - they are symptomatic of our society for which there can be little hope

Economics is Bunkum

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Francis Irving left an annotation (16 December 2009)

Blog post about this request, including conversion to " Standard British Peasant Year":

http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/...

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Nick Leaton left an annotation (17 December 2009)

Thanks Frank. I did tell them about the results.

It's beggars belief.

The Lords is worse. They cost 2,000 pounds a minute!

1 standard british peasant has to work for a year and all their tax keeps the Lords going for 60 seconds

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