Lawyers' multi-million pound bills for abuse inquiry to be revealed

Tuesday 10 March 2015

The amount that lawyers have been paid out of the £20 million budget of the abuse inquiry will be revealed later today after a politician demanded a breakdown of the costs incurred so far.

Bills for lawyers representing the inquiry and States departments make up a huge chunk of the budget for the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, but when ministers said last month that the final bill was expected to be three times the original budget, no breakdown of legal fees was revealed.

Today, Deputy Mike Higgins has tabled a question to publish those figures.

Later this month, the States will return to action to debate Ministers’ plans to line up an extra £14 million for the inquiry on top of the £6 million they have already had – meaning that the cost of the inquiry will be more than ten times the compensation that was paid out to abuse survivors under the abuse compensation schemes.

Deputy Higgins’ States Question, filed for this morning’s sitting, asks how much has been spent on lawyers engaged by the care inquiry, lawyers acting for States departments, lawyers representing the care leavers, lawyers working on the compensation schemes, and the costs incurred by the States own Law Officer’s department.

So far, the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry has heard evidence from abuse victims about the sustained physical and sexual abuse that they were subjected to while in care. Evidence has been heard about the Beast of Jersey at children’s homes, that the head of Haut de la Garenne raped a young girl at the home, and that notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile had been in Jersey.

The inquiry began after the conclusion of the police investigation into historical child abuse in the Island.

That inquiry – codenamed “Operation Rectangle” – revealed an appalling history of abuse of children in care, many of whom had no family to turn to help them.

Operation Rectangle identified a total of 533 alleged offences reported and recorded between September 2007 and December 2010.

Of those alleged offences, 315 were reported as being committed at Haut de la Garenne children’s home. Eight people were prosecuted for 145 offences, and 7 convictions were secured. Police identified 151 named offenders and 192 victims.