Budget and expenditure for the public inquiry

Although a public inquiry may not have a fixed budget, it is nonetheless responsible for its use of public funds. Where there is no fixed limit on expenditure the civil service practice is to ensure that there is a “business case” for any given item of spending. Standard tendering procedures will be followed, although they are unwieldy for a small public inquiry which is expected to report quickly and very often the sponsoring department will permit the use of umbrella contractual arrangements which it has in place with service providers and which have already been the subject of competitive tendering.

Again, regardless of whether there is any set limit for expenditure, a public inquiry will be expected to make financial forecasts and to make a regular analysis of whether the forecasts are being met or should be revised. The need for these procedures stems from basic management requirements – unless an organisation considers whether its needs are likely to be met, and then monitors whether its expectations are being met, it will be out of control. Furthermore, every sponsoring department has a fixed budget, controlled by public spending rounds and a public inquiry may be a significant drain on the resources of a small department. Unless there is rigorous forecasting and analysis the department may be faced with unknown pressure. That may force it into the position of cutting its expenditure elsewhere or of putting pressure on the inquiry to cut back.

There is increasing scrutiny of the expenditure of a public inquiry. The experience of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry has given rise to a public perception that it was out of control in terms of time and expense. One result of that perception is the increasing readiness of parliamentarians to ask questions of Ministers about the costs to date and the forecast outlay for every public inquiry and those questions may descend into minute detail about, for example, IT provision. Regardless of good management practice and of the need to inform its sponsoring department, a public inquiry will need to be able to give the information for such questions to be answered quickly, fully and accurately.