Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan

Per the report's own footnote to 'Chair to the Inquiry': '* To note HM Courts and Tribunal Service covered the Chair's salary costs in this period. From April 2025, the sponsoring department (MOD) covered the cost.' MAPPING: panel_remuneration = 'Chair to the Inquiry' £452,018 (sole Chair, Lord Justice Sir Charles Haddon-Cave; no other panel members disclosed). staff_costs = Secretariat £1,237,821. inquiry_legal_costs = Solicitors £2,602,294 + Counsel £3,243,640 = £5,845,934. core_participant_legal_costs = 'Core Participant legal fees' £336,895 (direct label match). technology_costs = 'IT costs' £7,782 ONLY ('the costs of IT equipment used by the Inquiry, including both software and hardware'); 'Document management' £10,272 is deliberately kept OUT of technology_costs and put in other_costs instead, because the report defines it as a separate, distinct category ('document management costs which allows the Inquiry to share non-classified information with Core Participants in a secure and controlled manner') and folding it into IT costs would force together two categories the report itself keeps apart. other_costs = £902,747, combining: 'Advisers and Expert Witnesses' £699,681 (non-legal specialist/expert fees -- the report's narrative for this year describes forensic, ballistics, blood-pattern-analysis, pathology and clinical-trauma experts, confirming these are not counsel or solicitors); 'Document management' £10,272 (see above); 'Communications' £1,590 ('media monitoring and videography', a blended PR/production line, not clean IT infrastructure, so not put in technology_costs); 'Website' £1,097 (hosting, maintenance, translation and development of the Inquiry website; the Inquiry's OWN FY23-24 statement classified website costs under 'Other costs', not IT, supporting the same treatment here); 'Hearings' £178,279 (bundled venue/AV/transcription/translation/travel/accommodation/subsistence, as in FY23-24, not splittable into accommodation_costs); and the report's own 'Other costs' line £11,828, defined as 'Travel costs. Stationery and office equipment costs. Welfare support costs. Non-hearing related expenses paid to Inquiry staff.' -- NOTE: 'Welfare support costs' (safeguarding-adjacent, support for witnesses) is bundled inside this unsplit £11,828 total with no further breakdown published, so it cannot be isolated into safeguarding_costs; safeguarding_costs is left blank (not separately quantifiable, not zero) accordingly. accommodation_costs is likewise left blank: no standalone accommodation line is published in any of the three source statements; accommodation-related spend is embedded in the bundled 'Hearings' total folded into other_costs. RECONCILIATION (IMPORTANT): total_cost (£8,331,179, the report's own 'Total expenditure') EXCLUDES the Chair's £452,018, which was paid by HM Courts and Tribunal Service rather than the Inquiry's MOD budget in this period (per the footnote above) -- verified: staff_costs + inquiry_legal_costs + core_participant_legal_costs + technology_costs + other_costs = £1,237,821 + £5,845,934 + £336,895 + £7,782 + £902,747 = £8,331,179 EXACTLY, i.e. total_cost equals the sum of the six mapped columns EXCLUDING panel_remuneration. Do not add panel_remuneration on top of total_cost for this row -- the report's own printed 'Salaries subtotal' (£8,235,454) DOES include the Chair (£452,018+£1,237,821+£2,602,294+£3,243,640+£699,681=£8,235,454 exactly), but the final 'Total expenditure' line nets the Chair's HMCTS-funded cost back out, and total_cost here reproduces that net figure verbatim. CAVEATS (verbatim, same wording as the FY23-24 statement): 'These figures are intended to give an overview of the level and elements of expenditure over the course of the Inquiry's work. Every attempt has been made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate.' 'The figures are not the equivalent of company accounts.' 'These figures are intended to show when the work that was charged for was carried out. In some cases, this will be different to when the invoice was raised or when the amount was paid to the supplier.' VAT treatment follows Ministry of Defence (sponsor department) guidance. No redacted or withheld cost lines are noted in this statement, despite the Inquiry's CLOSED national-security hearings; the report separately discusses ongoing forensic/ballistics work and the ITS1 server investigation in narrative terms only, with no cost line withheld or marked confidential.