Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer from Baroness Levitt on 24 March (HL15657), for what reason the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements does not record the cost of individual inquiries.

The Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) is operationally independent from the Ministry of Justice. The IMA’s inquiry work is, like its other functions, delivered within its overall allocated budget.

This means that, unlike a stand-alone statutory or public inquiry which is established with dedicated funding and resource, no additional or dedicated funds are allocated to individual IMA inquiries.

The IMA does not charge inspection fees to any relevant public authority involved in an inquiry. As a result, unit costs for individual inquiries have not been developed.

The overall costs of the IMA are published in its Annual Report and Accounts, which details all staffing costs and administrative costs.