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Home Office

Answer

Ms Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total cost to public funds was of the extradition case of Senator Pinochet. [160723] Mr. Straw: Four countries (Spain, France, Belgium and Switzerland) sought Senator Pinochet's extradition under the European Convention on Extradition. The final and total cost to public funds of handling these requests was £3,857,108.58. The breakdown of this is as follows: Costs Incurred by the Home Office: £670,588.82 Treasury Solicitor's fees: £63,150.000{1} Disbursements (mainly Counsel's fees): £292,385.93{1} Costs of the Kingdom of Belgium and Amnesty International: £155,081.68 Costs of Medical Examination on 5 January 2000: £11,751.25 Responding to public correspondence (this covers staff costs where letters were handled in house and Central Office of Information fees where letters were contracted out): £10,941.05 Staff Costs (estimated): £165,778.91 {1} Of these two amounts £28,500.00 was recovered from Senator Pinochet under costs orders made against Senator Pinochet by the High Court. Costs Incurred by the Crown Prosecution Service: £676,691.00 Counsel's fees: £425,077.00 Staff Costs (estimated): £137,055.00 Other Costs (interpreters, travel and subsistence and photocopying): £114,559.00 Costs Incurred by the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers: £60,000.00 Staff Costs (estimated): £60,000.00 Costs Incurred by the Lord Chancellor's Department: £1,209,775.05 The Law Lords ordered that Senator Pincohet's costs should be met from Central Funds for the first two hearings before the House of Lords in the unusual circumstances of the case. The costs paid from Central Funds were as follows: for the first hearing in the House of Lords: £270,935.89; and for the application to set aside the judgment following the first hearing in the House of Lords: £151,361.30 The costs of those Divisional court hearings in which Senator Pinochet was successful or which did not proceed, and the costs of the committal proceedings in Bow Street Magistrates court from 27 September to 1 October 1999, were also order to be paid from Central Funds. The costs of these hearings were £787,477.86. All these costs were ordered to be paid under Section 16 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, and they fall to be paid out of the Lord Chancellor's Department's portion of central funds. Senator Pinochet received no legal aid funding in any of the proceedings against him. Treasury Solicitor's Fees: £100,053.76 Amicus Curiae (costs and disbursements including Counsel's fees): £71,029.00 Other costs and disbursements: £29,024.76 Security Costs: £1,200,000.00 Responsibility for Senator Pinochet's protection and detention were the responsibility of the Metropolitan police. For security reasons, it has long been the practice of successive Governments not to provide information about police operations relating to protection. The costs incurred by Surrey police relating to general policing and public order matters in relation to Senator Pinochet's residence in Wentworth were £1,200,000.00. All these figures include Value Added Tax where appropriate.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

368 c74-5W; 160723

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Costs Extradition Legal costs Pinochet, Augusto

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk