§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make an interim statement on the progress of the inquiry into the Crown Agents concerning the loss of £200 million of public funds; when the inquiry commenced; how many meetings have been held to date; how many witnesses have already been heard and are to be heard; how many days the inquiry has sat; what have been the legal costs to date, actual or estimated; when the inquiry is likely to report; what the total and legal costs will be on the basis of present known figures and estimates thereon; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RaisonI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to a question by my right hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil (Mr. Peyton) on 15 December last in which I set out some of the information for which the hon. Member asks.
Up to 27 January the tribunal has heard evidence on 254 days; in addition it has met in private on 74 occasions. 91 witnesses will have been heard when the current stage of the public hearings is completed; four new witnesses are to be heard in the final stage beginning on 29 January and at least one earlier witness is to be recalled. The hearings are likely to be completed next week and the tribunal is expected to report towards the end of this year.
Actual expenditure on legal costs to date amounts to approximately £0.75 million and total expenditure to the end of December was £1.7 million. These figures do not include the cost of the Treasury Solicitor's staff, fees for which bills have not yet been submitted or bills for approximately £0.1 million that are currently being examined; and no allowance has been made for the cost of accommodation for the hearings in Government buildings. It is not possible at this stage to estimate the final total costs of the tribunal.