2020-160 – Cost of investigating British American Tobacco
?>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.