MoD spends £3m on lawyers to help Government’s Covid inquiry response

The Ministry of Defence is spending more than £3 million hiring lawyers to help with the Government’s response to the official Covid inquiry.

The defence department has become the latest government body to call on external legal advice in relation to the inquiry, signing a contract worth £3.4 million to hire Dentons, a prominent firm of solicitors.

Analysis of government procurement data suggests that the total amount already committed across Whitehall has exceeded £120 million, with the figure expected to increase significantly amid a legal stand-off between the Cabinet Office and Baroness Hallett, the retired judge chairing the inquiry.

The MoD’s contract is likely to fuel concerns about whether taxpayers’ money is being put to best use, particularly given the department’s regular wranglings with the Treasury for sufficient funds to respond to foreign threats.

An MoD spokesman said: “This budget has no impact on our operational requirements.

“The MoD uses legal services when external expertise is essential – which can include matters of national security – or provides better value for taxpayers’ money.”

Additional resources

The Armed Forces were involved in many aspects of the Covid-19 response, from helping to set up Nightingale field hospitals to helping with testing and delivering supplies to NHS hospitals.

The “framework” for the contract states: “Each Government Department is likely to be expected to contribute to the Inquiry, and a number of these have been working with GLD [the Government Legal Department] to prepare for the work required.

“GLD anticipates that it will need external law firms to provide additional resources and expertise to support the departments, and this Call Off Contract has been established... to provide this support.”

The Cabinet Office is seeking to bring a judicial review to challenge Lady Hallett’s ruling that the Government should hand over WhatsApp messages and other records that officials insist are “unambiguously irrelevant”.

Earlier this year, The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files revealed that Ben Wallace, Defence Secretary, had given short shrift to the reliance, in other quarters, on WhatsApp to discuss policies relating to the government’s Covid-19 response.

At one stage, he was “added” to a decision-making group and told one of Mr Hancock’s aides: “I am not entirely sure why I have been put on the chat… I shall continue to do things via POs [private offices] and speak directly with your boss.”