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2020-160 – Cost of investigating British American Tobacco

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Date Answered: 23 December 2020

Under the Freedom of Information Act, please can you provide a breakdown of the total costs to date of the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into British American Tobacco (https://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/british-american-tobacco)? Please can you provide a breakdown of the costs by financial year, and detail how much has been spent on legal fees?

The below table contains a breakdown of the total costs per financial year for the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) investigation into British American Tobacco.

Cost summary July 2016-December 2020

Expenditure 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 Total
Permanent Staff 172,624 304,397 512,968 670,928 255,455 1,916,372
Fees To Counsel 17,705 87,578 91,206 97,277 49,755 434,521
IT Services & Consumables  6,895 24,033 17,073 48,000
Other Investigation Costs 3,462 3,845 6,251 6,997 166 20,720
Travel & Subsistence  1,761 580 6,771 3,196 12,307
Total 195,552 396,400 624,091 802,430 322,448 2,340,921

And can you also provide details on how many individuals (including Serious Fraud Office employees and external lawyers) that have been involved in the British American Tobacco investigation?”

Approximately, seven individuals worked on the case at any one time, not including administrative support.