The lawyers making a pile

The astonishing fortunes amassed by lawyers working on the Bloody Sunday inquiry were revealed today as it emerged that leading QCs have already pocketed more than £400,000 each in fees and expenses.

The marathon inquiry, already the most expensive tribunal in British legal history, is still not at the halfway mark and is expected to land taxpayers with a final bill of more than £100 million.

Government ministers have already confirmed that proceedings so far have cost £52 million since Tony Blair announced the inquiry in 1998.

Today's detailed breakdown confirms for the first time the full extent of the riches being tapped by lawyers and legal firms working on the Saville Inquiry into the events of January 1972, when 14 demonstrators died as British soldiers opened fire during a civil rights march.

Eversheds, the London-based firm of solicitors contracted by the inquiry to take witness statements, has been paid £10.8 million in fees and expenses. It is estimated that between 900 and 1,000 civilian and military witnesses will give evidence, but statements have been taken from more than 1,500 people.

Counsel for the inquiry and victims' families - 12 junior barristers and 10 QCs, including Michael Mansfield QC - have shared £7.173 million in fees and expenses.

A total of £13.3 million has been spent on computer technology for the inquiry based at Londonderry's Guildhall - more than £8 million on establishing the system capable of providing almost instantaneous on-screen transcripts of evidence, which can be accessed via the internet.

Senior counsel, who also include Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC, acting for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, are earning at least £1,500 a day, rising to £1,900 if they put in extra hours of preparatory work.

The lawyers also get travel, accommodation and subsistence costs. On top of these expenses, sources say the lawyers are paid for "travelling time" at a rate of £62.50 an hour. Astonishingly, the Northern Ireland Office is now going to court, fighting a 16 per cent pay rise for barristers which had been due to take effect when the inquiry resumes next Monday after an extended Christmas break.

Crispin Blunt, Tory spokesman on Northern Ireland, claimed the latest figures showed Mr Blair had wasted taxpayers' money. "Setting up this inquiry in this manner has been a disaster," he said.

"The costs bear no possible relation to any potential benefits that can come out of the inquiry - and for this, the Prime Minister is solely responsible.

"It is disgraceful, indefensible and, given the length of time since these events took place, there is no way the witness statements can possibly be reliable."

Denounced by Unionists as a sop to nationalism, the inquiry, say critics, was set up for political reasons as part of the peace process.

Opponents point out that it is wrong to stage an exhaustive inquiry into one episode of the Troubles when 3,000 people have been killed and more than 40,000 injured. Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson, whose probing has uncovered the extraordinary costs of the Saville Inquiry, said: "It is clear that the cost is now spiralling out of control. The fact that one legal firm has received more than £10 million and the cost of providing IT exceeds £13 million gives a clear indication where this money is going.

"Unless the Government can put a cap on the cost, I cannot see how it is in the public interest to spend this huge amount of money looking at one particular event in 30 years of violence. People are dying on waiting lists in Northern Ireland, our school buildings are crumbling. Many will look upon these figures with amazement."

The inquiry is not due to finish hearing evidence until early next year and its report will finally be published in early 2004, by which time the Northern Ireland Office expects the whole exercise to have cost more than £100 million.

It also emerged today that preparations for the inquiry have cost the Ministry of Defence £14.45 million - an expense to taxpayers on top of the £52 million so far spent by the Northern Ireland Office.

Today's figures reveal that £3.6 million has been spent on offices in London and Londonderry and the venues for the hearings, which include a cinema where members of the public can see live evidence via video relay.

Lord Saville continues to draw his £157,699 annual salary as a Law Lord, which is not included in the costs to the Northern Ireland Office. He has, however, collected £7,400 in £50 daily allowances for his time in Londonderry.

His colleagues, Canadian Mr Justice William Hoyt and Australian High Court judge John Toohey, and two other overseas judges who have subsequently resigned, have earned £907,000 in salaries, allowances and rental of London accommodation - they also get £50 a day while in Londonderry, £75 a day in London, and an allowance of £500 a day for every month in which they are in the UK for at least two weeks.

In addition they get free travel from their home countries - part of a total travel bill for key players in the inquiry of £1.34 million.