Lawyers for soldiers in Bloody Sunday inquiry paid £15m

The Government faced fresh criticism over the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday last night after new figures showed that one barrister had been paid more than £2m for representing British soldiers.

Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces minister, disclosed in a written parliamentary answer that more than £15m had been paid to lawyers for the Ministry of Defence and armed forces.

The barrister Edwin Glasgow was paid £2,155,288 between December 1998 and February this year, by far the highest published fee of any lawyer in the case for either the soldiers or the families. Solicitor Jacqueline Duff, also representing soldiers, was paid £1,352,264 between July 1998 and January this year.

Mr Ingram said the figures included fees, expenses and VAT. "There are four teams representing the soldiers – necessary due to the existence of conflicts of interest between various individuals – and one representing the Ministry of Defence," he said.

According to the figures, the Treasury Solicitor was also paid £1.89m between October 1998 and February this year.

The disclosure is a further embarrassment to the Government over the inquiry into the deaths of 14 civilians shot by British soldiers during a civil rights rally in Londonderry on 30 January 1972.

It had already been revealed that the lawyers representing the families have received more than £11m in public money.

Ulster Unionist and Tory MPs have repeatedly criticised the legal costs of the inquiry, which was announced by Tony Blair in 1998.