To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answers of 24 April 2009, Official Report, column 974W, on the Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry: legal costs, and 30 March 2009, Official Report, columns 851-2W, on the Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry, in which financial year the legal costs paid in relation to the inquiry in each month since August 2008 were incurred. (274156)

In relation to the lawyers working for the inquiry, I am advised that the costs paid in each month since August 2008 were paid in the same financial year as they were incurred. In relation to the lawyers representing interested parties and witnesses before the inquiry, I am advised that one payment was made in February 2009 to cover costs incurred from July 2001 to December 2004. The payment of these retrospective costs was delayed as they were the subject of lengthy negotiations on the final settlement.