Government racks up £100m bill responding to Covid inquiry

A public inquiry into the Covid pandemic has cost the government more than £100 million, the BBC has learned. This is on top of the £192 million spent on the investigation itself, meaning the cost to the taxpayer is more than 50% higher than previously estimated.

Government spending covers legal advice and staff – at last count a team of 248 people was working in key departments to gather evidence for the investigation.

Investigative sources questioned the approach, saying the government acted at times in a “hostile and heavy-handed” manner, blocking the release of information and delivering documents late.

However, the cabinet said it intends to investigate and learn lessons for the future.

However, the Taxpayers' Alliance called it a waste of money, and Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said that while the work being done was vital, public inquiries in general needed to become more efficient and less adversarial.

The scale and cost of the Covid investigation has already been questioned.

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

There are a total of 10 separate investigations – or modules, as they are called. Currently, only two projects related to pandemic preparedness and government decision-making have been completed.

But a BBC analysis of cabinet documents found that between April 2023 and June 2025 government departments spent around £101 million.

Much of this amount is believed to have been accumulated by five key departments – the Cabinet Office, the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Treasury and the UK Health Security Agency – which have been repeatedly asked to provide evidence.

Cost estimates do not include the time officials spend preparing and appearing as witnesses in person.

More than half of the £101 million was spent on legal fees, including the use of external lawyers.

The source at the inquiry said that to some extent the spending reflected the government's defensive stance towards the investigation.

Inquiry chairman Baroness Hallett and the inquiry's legal team criticized government departments for delays in producing documents and blocking the release of key information.

This reached its peak in 2023 when the investigation and the government ended up in the High Court over the government's refusal to release Boris Johnson's WhatsApp messages, diaries and notebooks.. The government lost the case.

Sources said the government mounted a “huge operation” that at times appeared “hostile and complex” to investigators.

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

The Cabinet Office argues that the court case was brought to clarify a fundamental issue – the right of the investigation to request information that the supplier considers immaterial.

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 itself.

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

“Ministers must urgently get a grip on the rising costs of Covid investigations and commit to delivering answers quickly and effectively.”

A spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said the investigation's work was “vitally important” and any costs would be repaid many times over in the future if lessons were learned by reducing the economic impact of the next pandemic as well as saving lives.

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

He said the group supported the Hillsborough Act, which is moving through Parliament and strengthens the legal duty on public bodies to assist public inquiries.

He said public inquiries such as the Covid inquiry needed to become more efficient and less adversarial.

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

A spokesman for the Covid inquiry said: “The investigation is unlike any previous public inquiry. It has been given a very wide scope as it explores the many aspects of a pandemic that has affected everyone in society.”

He said the chairman had made it clear from the outset that it would take time and involve significant costs, but it was moving faster than any other public inquiry of comparable size, noting that all hearings would be completed by spring 2026.

He said it would lead to recommendations to better protect the UK should the next pandemic occur, but would not comment on the nature of the relationship with the government.