Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into press standards cost £3.9m of public money in the 11 months to 30 June.
The four lawyers acting as counsel to the inquiry have taken home just over £1m. The highest-paid of these will have been lead counsel Robert Jay QC.
The fees paid to each barrister are not disclosed, but Jay is estimated to be on about £120 an hour, the standard government tariff, for his questioning of key witnesses including the prime minister and Rupert Murdoch. Depending on how his fee was structured, Jay could have received anything from £250,000 to £430,000 since the start of the inquiry in mid-July last year.
His colleagues on the inquiry counsel team – Carine Patry Hoskins and David Barr, plus the module two counsel, Lucinda Boon – will be paid less than the more experienced Jay.
A further four barristers providing legal assistance to the inquiry counsel were paid £222,400, and secretariat staff costs were £1.2m.
The cost of the inquiry, according to the latest figures published on Wednesday, rose by a total of £1.1m between 31 March and 30 June to £3.9m.
The Leveson inquiry has now paid £183,900 in core participant and witness costs, which includes legal representation for several witnesses. The inquiry has also paid £126,700 to the assessors appointed to assist Leveson.
Jeremy Hunt, the former culture secretary, said in a written parliamentary answer in June that he expected the total cost of the inquiry to reach about £5.6m by the time it ends in late 2013.
Leveson is expected to deliver his report providing the government with recommendations on the future of press regulation in early November, slightly later than previously expected.
This article was amended on 6 September 2012 to remove a reference to Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti. She is a Leveson inquiry assessor, but neither she nor Liberty has received any remuneration or reinbursement of expenses for her role.
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