Kensington & Chelsea sees Grenfell legal costs reach £4.5m
The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea has run up legal costs of £4.5m for dealing with the public inquiry and police investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire, a report to councillors by director of law Tasnim Shawkat has said.
This remains below the £5m allocated in March 2018 but may increase as it was “necessary to retain the same legal advisers both to represent and advise the council and assist the public inquiry and the police in this extremely complex inquiry/investigation”, the report, which can be viewed here, said.
Legal spending as of 31 December 2018 was £2.5m to law firm DWF, retained as the council’s principal legal adviser, and £23,536 to Weightmans Solicitors, who are used to assist with the police investigation, provide them with an independent single point of contact and support witnesses during interviews.
Other legal costs were £1.0m on counsel fees, £37,831 on expenses and £923,000 on specialist IT packages capable of sifting through some 440,000 documents identified as relevant.
Spending on specialist legal advice and IT in respect of the criminal investigation and public inquiry would from now on need approval from the executive director of resources and assets, reporting this on a quarterly basis.
The council’s financial plan includes £20m over the next five years for ‘corporate’ costs associated with Grenfell, including all legal costs arising from the public inquiry and other costs associated with the criminal investigation.
No separate representation is provided at council expense to any individual officers, councillors or political groups.
Leader Elizabeth Campbell said: “The money involved is really very high. I would just like to note, at the time when the police funding is being cut back I think it’s absolutely right that we commit the money for specialist IT services and specialist legal advice so that we can continue to disclose documents and that we can continue doing everything we can to work with the inquiry using the same systems to enable the truth to come out.”
Mark Smulian
