Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much from the public purse has been spent on legal representation in public inquests and inquiries in each year between 2020 and July 2025.

For statutory inquiries, section 40 of the Inquiries Act 2005 gives the Chair the power to award funding for legal representation subject to conditions imposed by the Sponsoring Minister. Details of these costs and of the cost of an inquiry’s legal support are available on individual inquiry websites. The Cabinet Office does not keep centralised records of expenditure on legal representation in public inquiries and inquests.