The long-running Manchester Arena Inquiry has cost taxpayers £26.7m so far. The figure has been revealed in a series of financial reports published on the inquiry website.
Most of the money - some £18.6m - has gone on legal fees while the rest has been spent on the purpose-built inquiry room, IT, external affairs and staffing including the chairman, Sir John Saunders. The cost to the tax-payer has been revealed in a series of financial statements published on the inquiry's website and covers a period from October 22, 2019, when the inquiry began, to September 30 last year.
The bill has already dwarfed the cost of the public inquiry into the killing spree of Dr Harold Shipman (£21m) but remains well short of the most expensive UK public inquiry, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, which cost £191.5m. In 2019, Home Secretary Priti Patel agreed to a hold a public inquiry into the arena atrocity after Sir John, then sitting as a coroner, expressed concern that the proposed inquests would not be allowed to consider sensitive information held by the security services.
