£160k honours probe advice bill

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More than £160,000 of public money was spent on civil servants' legal advice during the cash-for-honours inquiry.

The figure was disclosed to MPs by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the civil service.

He said it was "right" that civil servants interviewed by police over actions undertaken at work had their costs covered by their employer.

No charges were brought after the £1.4m inquiry into whether money was given to parties in return for peerages.

Sir Gus had been asked what the total cost to the government had been of the lengthy inquiry, in which the police interviewed more than 130 people - including the then prime minister Tony Blair.

'Impossible to quantify'

In a letter to the Commons Public Administration Committee, published on Thursday, Sir Gus said it "would be impossible to quantify the exact amount of time that officials had spent dealing with the investigation".

But he said the government's bill for external legal advice provided to civil servants was £160,512.

"A number of civil servants were interviewed by the police over the course of the 16-month investigation," he said.

"Some were interviewed more than once. It is right, as their employer, that the government covered the costs of representing individuals being investigated for actions undertaken in the course of official business."

But he said the Labour Party covered the costs of supporting its staff and special advisers.

All those involved in the inquiry denied any wrongdoing and in July 2007 the Crown Prosecution Service said there was "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against any individual for any offence".

Some Labour MPs have criticised the police decision to put so much time and effort into the inquiry, prompted by a complaint from an SNP MP, which they saw as a "political vendetta".