THE total cost of the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed could top £10m, including more than £2.7m in legal fees. Most of the cost will be met by the taxpayer.

The inquests, which finally begin this week after a decade of delays, are expected to last at least six months and will engage the services of seven QCs and more than a dozen other barristers and solicitors.

An inquest official last week emphasised the “unique” nature of the joint hearings, which insiders say will significantly increase costs.

These include a jury protection service, with daily police escorts to and from the Royal Courts of Justice in London; video links for French witnesses; and a two-day trip to Paris by the jury - altogether 50 people connected with the inquests will be flown over and given hotel accommodation.

Hearings will start after Lord Justice Scott Baker - the fourth coroner to have been assigned the case - finishes whittling down the original 227 jury candidates to a final 11 jurors, probably on Tuesday.

Scott Baker said earlier this year: “Those costs are going to be considerable, bearing in mind the events took place in France and many of the witnesses are French and live abroad.”

Conservative estimates based on the 2003 Hutton inquiry, which lasted 10 weeks and cost £1.7m, suggest the Diana hearing will cost at least £5.3m. But the overall cost will rise to at least £9m, once last year’s £3.7m Stevens inquiry is taken into account.

Sir John Scarlett, chief of MI6, the secret intelligence service, is coming under pressure to give evidence in one of the most controversial aspects of the inquest.

Lawyers for Dodi’s father Mohamed al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods, the London store, will press the coroner to summon Scarlett as a witness. They want him to explain why MI6 destroyed a secret document that Fayed claims was relevant to Diana’s death. The document allegedly outlined plans to assassinate Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president.

Fayed claims this abortive plot was used as a template by agents of MI6 to cause the car crash in which the princess and Dodi Fayed died in Paris in 1997. The allegation about the document will be put by Michael Mansfield QC, Fayed’s lawyer, and is central to Fayed’s claim that Diana, Dodi and their driver Henri Paul died in an MI6 plot commissioned by the Duke of Edinburgh.

MI6, as well as palace sources, have dismissed the claim as nonsense.

The QCs and their teams of lawyers will represent various parties in the inquests, including the Metropolitan police, Paul’s family, MI6 and the Ritz hotel in Paris, from where Diana’s car started out on the fatal journey.

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