To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on which tribunals of inquiry public funding was made available to assist the legal representation of bereaved families in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008; and what the annual cost to his Department was of each such inquiry. (295033)

Although the Ministry of Justice has policy responsibility for the Inquiries Act 2005, it does not have a central operational responsibility for inquiries established under the Act. Nor does it have any operational responsibility for public inquiries either established before the Act came into force or established on a non-statutory basis. The costs of any such inquiry, including those on legal representation for the parties to the inquiry, fall to the sponsor Department and central records of expenditure are not kept.