• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

QMUL spent £250,000 in legal fees to prevent the release of the PACE trial data

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Why would industry pay when they can get the public to pay for it?

The university presumably has to justify its spending and I'd be horrified if it had actually used taxpayers' money for this. I'd have thought it would have been against its own regulations and/or the advice of its own trustees.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that for now it's an assumption that this was taxpayers' money rather than an established fact (although I can't concentrate well enough at the moment to read John the Jack's blog properly).
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
A quarter of a million pounds?!? It's breath-taking. That's the equivalent yearly pay of about 12 junior researchers. I think it raises a huge question-mark over the leaders of an institution that is prepared to spend this much to hide public data. I wonder if there is a regulatory body who oversees accounting, spending and leadership at English universities? What are the university's trustees doing about this?
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that for now it's an assumption that this was taxpayers' money rather than an established fact...
UK universities receive private and public financing but they are considered public bodies.

John the Jack says that the legal fees were paid by QMUL...
John the Jack said:
QMUL has said how much they paid in legal fees:

Mills & Reeve LLP: £149,482.30 ex VAT
Timothy Pitt-Payne QC: £48,320.00 ex VAT
Disbursements/expenses (Mills & Reeve LLP): £6,985.43 ex VAT


VAT is charged at 20% on legal fees. I make the total amount of public money QMUL has so far spent to keep data secret to be:

£245,745.276
 
Last edited:
The university presumably has to justify its spending and I'd be horrified if it had actually used taxpayers' money for this. I'd have thought it would have been against its own regulations and/or the advice of its own trustees.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that for now it's an assumption that this was taxpayers' money rather than an established fact (although I can't concentrate well enough at the moment to read John the Jack's blog properly).
Well, presumably their justification is the reputation of both QMUL and the individuals involved. And if the legal bills were paid by industry sources would the details then be accessible under a FOI request?

Just a thought, wasn't one of the arguments against release of the data that it would be too costly to process the data to make it "release-able"??