Government has spent more than £100m so far responding to Covid inquiry
The public inquiry into the Covid pandemic has cost the Government more than £100 million to respond to so far, according to official figures.
Transparency data from the Cabinet Office shows the overall cost for responding to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, including for legal advice and dedicated staff working on preparing evidence.
The cost is on top of the £192 million cost of the inquiry itself so far. The inquiry is expected to become the most expensive in British history.
The documents, analysed by the BBC and seen by the Press Association, reveal 248 full-time equivalent staff were working on the Government response to the Covid inquiry at the last count.
The figures show:
– £56.4 million was spent by the Government on legal costs from April 2023 to June 2025 inclusive, with £26.2 million in the 12 months to March 2024, £25.0 million in the 12 months to March 2025, plus £5.2 million in the three months from April to June 2025.
– £44.6 million was spent on staff costs across this period, made up of £18.0 million in the year to March 2024, £21.6 million in the year to March 2025, and £5.0 million in the three months April-June 2025.
– The combined total for legal and staff costs for the period April 2023 to June 2025 is £100.9 million, though the true amount could be higher as the costs are “not based on a complete set of departmental figures and are not precise for accounting purposes”, according to the Cabinet Office documents.
– The number of full-time equivalent staff working on the Government’s response to the inquiry stood at 265 at the end of the 2023/24 financial year, had risen to 286 by the end of 2024/25, and then fell to 248 across April-June 2025.
The Cabinet Office and Covid inquiry have been contacted for comment.
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The question is: has the UK government learnt from the mistakes and so less likely to repeat errors?
The PPE coverage did not interview anybody from NHS – who regularly buy PPE; or compare against how other countries bought PPE, Ireland was the fastest buyer of PPE https://www.thejournal.ie/u2-donating-money-fight-coronavirus-ireland-5070790-Apr2020/
The question is. Where is the inquiry for Cymru so it can learn from its mistakes?
Rather than a list of things to do better next pandemic that will be filed in a dusty basement and forgotten in the panic of the next pandemic, the inquiry should be looking for systemic changes that would’ve prevented the problems that occured from occuring at all had they been in place in 2020. This would have the happy benefit of improving all government all of the time, not just when there’s a pandemic. This is a common failure of Westminster led inquiries that tend towards a listening exercise and lots of handwringing but never addresses the fundamental questionsl of… Read more »
2002 The European Union Parliament audited Railtracks main project, West Coast Mainline – London to Glasgow renewal as cost estimate had ballooned from £2.3 billion to £16 billion.
They asked to see the procurement files of three contracts. No file could be provided for a £50k professional services contract. EU cancelled all funding for the project and Railtrack was put into administration on that basis.
Learning for Wales – is the auditor https://www.audit.wales/ independant and is allowed full access to procurement and contract management files?