It’s been revealed today that the cost of the inquest into the deaths of
Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed has now reached £2.8m.
This latest audit has been released ahead of the Easter break, the inquest
itself now only returning on March 31st, following which the coroner
Lord Justice Scott Baker will offer a summary of the six-month case ahead of
the jury returning its verdict.
According to the official figures, full details of which can be found on the
inquest website, a total of £2,885,618 has been spent on the central London hearing from
July 1st 2007 to February 29th 2008.
The latest inquest costs, all of which are being revealed "in the interests of
openness", include the following:
External legal services = £1,328,195
Video conferencing and special visits = £478,844
IT services = £465,590 Running
costs = £308,728
Staff = £207,697 Consultancy fees = £96,562
All costs are borne by the Ministry of Justice and therefore the British
taxpayer.
It’s previously been revealed that the official British police inquiry into the
Paris car crash which killed the princess, her boyfriend and their driver, Ritz
hotel employee Henri Paul, cost a total of £3.6m.
Comment: Relative Costs of Inquests & Commissions.
The 9/11 investigation was originally given a budget of $3-million, later increased to $12-million. Some reports say the budget is now $14-million.
By comparison, when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated during its descent in February 2003, $50-million was budgeted for an investigation, which began about an hour and a half after the disaster. Another $305-million was spent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), searching for shuttle debris.
The investigation into the shuttle accident began publicly releasing its findings within several weeks, and concluded its work with an exhaustive report about six months later.
Even the Warren Commission, the U.S. government's widely-disbelieved investigation of Pres. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, was budgeted at $5.5-million — in 1963 funds. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than $32-million in 2003 dollars.
