London, Apr 16: The inquest into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and her companion Dodi Al Fayed has cost the British tax-payer 12.5 million pounds.

The inquest, which ended last week, lasted more than 90 days and heard evidence from about 250 witnesses.

According to the released figures, the inquest cost taxpayers 1.85 million pounds for "external legal services", or lawyers' fees between July 1 last year and March 31, 768,000 pounds on running costs, 703,000 pounds on video conferencing and special visits of, 677,000 pounds on IT and 234,000 pounds on staffing cost.

They also had to foot the 110,000 pounds bill that the inquest spent on consultancy fees, reports the Telegraph.

The total cost also includes 187,000 pounds incurred by the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, and his predecessor up to the end of June 2007, as well as 8 million pounds spent by the Metropolitan police on services arising from the inquest and the Operation Paget investigation from 2004 to 2006.

Till now not included in the bill that the people will have to foot is the legal bills of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and MI6. Their costs are estimated to be around 250,000 pounds. (ANI)