Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government has paid in fees to all counsel to public inquiries in each of the last ten years.

Under the Inquiries Rules 2006, the appointment of Counsel to the Inquiry is a matter for an inquiry’s independent chair.

Baroness Hallett, the chair of the Covid-19 Inquiry, has appointed Hugo Keith QC as Lead Counsel to the Inquiry.

Information as to fees paid to inquiry counsel is not held centrally. Statutory inquiries publish information on their expenditure on their own independent websites.