Report details Inquiry spending breakdown
We have today (Thursday 30th April) published our latest financial report which details the Inquiry's annual expenditure for the 2019-20 financial year, up to 31 March 2020.
The report details that the Inquiry spent £25.987millon in 2019-20, up from £9.308million in 2018-19 and bringing total spending to date to £35.295million. This increase in costs reflects the Inquiry beginning its full hearings in April 2019, along with significant escalation of the Inquiry’s investigative work and a significant increase in legal costs.
The Inquiry’s investigation was the biggest item of expenditure at £8.85million, up from £2.18million in 2018-19. As of 31 March 2020, 277 solicitors, investigators and paralegals were reviewing millions of historical documents over multiple decades, making the Infected Blood Inquiry the largest public inquiry investigation of its kind.
The second biggest item of expenditure was legal fees paid to representatives of core participants funded through the Inquiry at £5.74million, up from £2.52million in 2018-19.
The third biggest item of expenditure was the cost of the Inquiry’s public hearings at £4.29million, up from £0.98million in 2018-19. In 2019-20 the Inquiry held hearings in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and Leeds, as well as a significant number of witness and expert hearings at the Inquiry hearing room in London.
The full report can be found here.