§ Mr. GapesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will provide a breakdown of the costs incurred to date in connection with the loss of the FV Gaul. [160731]
§ Mr. PrescottThe costs incurred to date in connection with the loss of the FV Gaul amount to about £1 million.
The original formal investigation held in 1974 cost £20,000 and the research conducted last year by Mr. Roger Clarke, acting as a consultant for the Department, which included the search for bodies of the crew in Northern Russia, cost £50,000. The total spent on the Marine Accident Investigation Branch's survey of the wreck conducted in 1998 cost nearly £700,000.
The discovery of new and important evidence by the MAIB led to the formal investigation being reopened on 16 April 1999. Since then over £300,000 has been paid to the firm of solicitors representing the families of the crew, the Max Gold Partnership, of which nearly £240,000 has been paid as legal fees. The families of the skipper and mate are separately represented by Birnberg Pierce & Partners and a bill for £85,000 has recently been submitted to the Department of which some £57,000 is for legal fees.