§ Mr. BluntTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the cost of the Saville Inquiry to his Department has been to date; and what his current estimate is of the final cost of the whole inquiry. [46024]
§ Mr. BrowneThe cost of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry to the Northern Ireland Office, as at 22 March 2002, is £56.8 million. The current estimated cost of the Inquiry to the Northern Ireland Office is £120 million.
The £20 million increase as compared with the figure given on 17 December 2001, Official Report, column 40W, is accounted for by two factors. First, an estimated £15 million of net additional costs arises from the transfer of the hearings to London this September. Secondly, the Senior Costs Judge's judgment of 21 March implies additional expenditure of, on best current estimates, around £5 million on solicitors for the families; expenditure on costs arising from this case is expected to run into several hundreds of thousands of pounds.
If my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State's challenge to the Senior Costs Judge's ruling on payments to counsel for the families is unsuccessful, that will add an estimated sum of at least £6 million to the estimated £120 million cost.
These figures do not include costs to other Departments such as the Ministry of Defence.
§ Mr. BluntTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he expects Lord Saville to report his findings. [46023]
§ Mr. BrownePublication of the report is a matter for the independent Tribunal. Based on my current understanding of the Inquiry's future timetable, I do not expect the Tribunal to publish its report before 2004.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland further to his answer of 26 February 2002,Official Report, column 757W, on the Saville Inquiry, how much public funding has been provided to the legal representatives of other parties represented at the Saville Inquiry, broken down by each (a) barrister and (b) firm of solicitors involved. [41239]
§ Mr. BrowneThe answer of 26 February set out the amount of public funding that has been provided to the legal representatives of the families and the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). The majority of the other parties represented at the Inquiry have their legal costs met through the Ministry of788W Defence. The public funding made available to these parties is therefore a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence.
The Tribunal has allowed certain persons limited legal representation during the course of the hearings. The costs of this representation are paid by the Inquiry. In addition a large number of witnesses have received legal assistance at the statement-taking stage and have had the costs of this met by the Inquiry. The cost of this assistance and representation therefore falls to my Department.
Much of the assistance to witnesses has been provided by solicitors to the families: insofar as it has been, the costs are included in the payments to the solicitors concerned shown in the parliamentary answer of 26 February 2002, Official Report, column 757W. However, a large number of other lawyers from across the United Kingdom and beyond have also been involved in providing assistance to individual witnesses or representing those additional persons referred to above. Given the numbers of lawyers involved it is taking a little time to compute the amounts paid to the individual teams. I will undertake to write to my hon. Friend with this information as soon as possible. A copy of the letter will be placed in the House Library.