As of December 2007, the cost of the Saville Inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972 was just over £181 million.
Sometimes questions don’t elicit quite the response expected, as when David Davis inquired about the costs of implementing alcohol disorder zones. Jacqui Smith politely informed the Shadow Home Secretary: “No costs have been incurred... as they have not yet been commenced.”
The news that, since 1998, ten licences have been issued to disturb water voles in their place of shelter, probably had Ratty’s whiskers all a-quiver. But the character from The Wind in the Willows will be relieved to know that all were issued for the purposes of either conservation or scientific study of the species, such as projects leading to restoration of their habitat.
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The Ministry of Defence has received 10,104 requests under the Freedom of Information Act since 2005, including 1.6 per cent were from parliamentarians; 9 per cent from business; 4.4 per cent from academics; and 17.8 per cent from media sources.
Have you ever wondered how many crèches there are on Ministry of Defence property in the UK? Well, although the information is not held centrally there are at least 60 crèches in the UK and more than 50 overseas.
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How many politicians does it take to... no, that’s not right. How many people does it take to ensure that the Identity and Passport Service processes our applications efficiently? As of December 31, 2007, it was precisely 4,132.
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs reports that mobile narcotics teams in Afghanistan made 135 separate seizures between January and October last year: 1,916kg of opium; 2,629 kg of cannabis; 67kg of diamorphine and 4,068kg of precursor chemicals.