Whitehall’s central legal services provider the Treasury Solicitor’s Office (TSol) is recruiting at least 70 lawyers in a bid to reduce the use of 100 temporary staff. TSol will begin interviewing later this month primarily for advisory and litigation lawyers at a grade 7 pay scale of £46,131 to £55,283.

A spokeswoman said the department is seeking to fill at least 70 roles. ‘The expectation is that the number of agency temporary workers will reduce as more permanent people come into the organisation,’ she said.

In January this year, TSol spent nearly £1m on interim legal professionals, mainly in litigation, through its framework agreement with outsourcing provider Capita.

Former TSol head Paul Jenkins told the Gazette last month: ‘We have just under 100 interim legal staff in the organization as a whole and we are recruiting to replace some of those on a permanent basis.’

He said: ‘Litigation volumes go up and down and I defy anyone to predict it accurately the precise fluctuation, particularly in area in something like immigration. But at times it has gone up to levels I would regard as unattractive.’

As the department’s shared service programme draws to an end – the initiative begun in 2011 to centralize government legal work into one department – TSol will be in a much clearer position about staffing levels, he said.