Committee publication · Correspondence · 3 November 2025
Letter to the Chair relating to Committee hearing: Identifying costs and generating income, 24 October 2025
From: Public Accounts Committee
Inquiry: Government services: Identifying costs and generating income
Summary
Farhad Chikhalia, representing the Department, writes to the Public Accounts Committee Chair requesting that three factual corrections to his oral evidence from 16 October 2025 be noted in the hearing transcript as footnotes. The corrections concern the timing of fee changes, refund scheme announcements, and costing methodology reforms.
Key findings
- Fee increase in question was based on 2021 process updating fees to align with inflation, not 2001 as stated
- Most recent MOJ refund scheme was announced in 2018 with SI laid in June 2018; scheme launched in 2020, not 2019
- New costing methodology began development in 2020 but was not introduced until 2023, not 2020
Tone
ProceduralTopics
public-financegovernment-accountability
Key actors
Farhad Chikhalia, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Public Accounts Committee, Ministry of Justice
Notable line
“The 12-month fee change was based on a 2021 process updating fees to align with inflation.”
Key Quotes
“Further to the Department's oral evidence provided to the Committee on 16 10 2025, I am writing to notify you of a number of minor corrections to my response.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗