Government racks up £100m bill responding to Covid inquiry

The public inquiry into the Covid pandemic has cost the government more than £100 million to respond to so far, the BBC has learned. This is on top of the £192 million spent by the investigation – meaning the cost to the taxpayer is 50% higher than before.

Government spending includes legal advice and staffing costs – at last count there was a team of 248 working in key departments to present evidence to the inquiry.

Investigative sources questioned the approach, saying the government had at times been “hostile and difficult”, blocking the release of information and delivering documents late.

But the Cabinet Office said it was committed to investigating and learning lessons for the future.

However, the Taxpayers’ Alliance branded it a waste of money and COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said the work being done was important, but public inquiries generally needed to be made more efficient and less adversarial.

The scale and cost of Covid testing has already been questioned by some.

It began in 2022 and its final report is not expected until 2027. It has already cost £192m – a figure which is expected to exceed £200m by the time it is completed, making it one of the most expensive public inquiries in history.

There are 10 different tests in total – or modules, as they are called. Given pandemic preparedness and government decision-making processes, only two have been completed so far.

But analysis of Cabinet Office documents by the BBC revealed that government departments have spent almost £101 million from April 2023 to June 2025.

The bulk of it is believed to have been earned by five key departments – the Cabinet Office, the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Treasury and the UK Health Protection Agency, which have been repeatedly asked to provide evidence.

The cost estimate does not include the time spent by officials preparing and appearing as witnesses in person.

More than half of the £101 million has been spent on legal fees – including bringing in external lawyers.

An investigation source said that to some extent this expenditure reflected the government’s defensive attitude towards the investigation.

Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett and the inquiry legal team have criticized government departments for delays in providing documents and obstruction to the release of vital information.

This most famously came to the fore in 2023, when the investigation into the government’s refusal to release Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages, diaries and notebooks ended up in the High Court. The government lost the case.

Sources said the government had set up a “large operation” that at times seemed “adversarial and difficult” to investigate.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The Government is fully committed to supporting the work of the investigation and learning lessons from the pandemic to ensure the UK is better prepared for future pandemics.”

The Cabinet Office argues that the court case was brought to seek clarity on a point of principle – the right of an inquiry to request information which the provider considers irrelevant.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers Alliance think tank, said: “It is an absolute disgrace that ministers have spent an extra £100 million on top of what has already been spent on the inquiry.

“These new figures show that the total cost to taxpayers will be much higher than previously feared.

“Ministers must urgently get a handle on the rising costs of Covid testing and commit to responding quickly and efficiently.”

A spokesperson for Justice UK for COVID-19 Bereaved Families said the work of the inquiry was “vital” and that any future costs would be offset many times over if lessons were learned from saving lives as well as reducing the economic impact of the next pandemic.

But he added: “The investigation process is far from perfect.”

He said the group supports the Hillsborough Law, which is working its way through Parliament and strengthens the legal duty on public officials to assist public inquiries.

He said public inquiries like Covid need to be made more efficient and less adversarial.

“Only then can we reduce the costs of future inquiries while protecting access to justice.”

A spokesperson for the Covid inquiry said: “This inquiry is different to any previous public inquiry. It has been given a very broad scope because it is examining many aspects of a pandemic that has affected everyone in society.”

He said the chairman had been clear at the outset that this would take time and cost a lot, but it would result in recommendations that are aimed at better protecting the UK if the next pandemic hits.

He said the investigation would not comment on the nature of the relationship with the government.