A cost order is simply an order which states that the Undercover Policing Inquiry will meet the reasonable expenses for legal representation of a core participant or a civilian witness. It is not necessary to be a core participant in order to have costs covered.
These orders often accompany orders designating a Recognised Legal Representative for the core participant.
It is a duty of the Inquiry Chair to ensure the Inquiry does not overspend and to assess whether core participants should have their costs covered as an Inquiry expense , though often the management of that falls to the Solicitor to the Inquiry. To date, the Inquiry has usually granted costs to individual core participants but not to large organisations. The costs of core participants (including hearings) amount to around 14% of the Inquiry’s total costs.
While there has been no specific hearing on this topic, it was addressed at the second procedural hearing on legal representation. As part of the hearing, the then Chair, Sir Christopher Pitchford, stated in his 9 November 2015 Ruling:
a person who has done little or nothing to bring the Inquiry about but is found in the circumstances that require their close involvement in the Inquiry should not be expected to bear their own costs of involvement unless the means of the individual are so extensive that it would be an affront to grant public funding.
The Inquiry’s approach to the costs of legal representation (also known as Costs Awards) can be found in the 2015 Costs Protocol. There is however, no formal legal requirement that the Inquiry covers a core participant’s costs – that remains at the Chair’s discretion.