Princess Diana was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997
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More than £6m of public money has been spent investigating the death of the Princess of Wales, it has emerged.
Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner at her High Court inquest, said bills for the hearing had topped £2.4m.
The previous Metropolitan Police investigation - which concluded her death in a Paris car crash in 1997 was a tragic accident - cost £3.7m.
The total does not include any costs borne by the taxpayer before 2003. Any such outlay has not been made public.
During that time Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son Dodi also died in the crash, as did driver Henri Paul, was pursuing a number of legal actions in the UK including a public inquiry.
He was also seeking one inquest hearing rather than two and an inquest before a jury.
Legal costs
Figures published on the coroner's website say more than £187,000 was run up by coroners before June last year.
And precisely £2,229,371.54 was spent in the last seven months, taking the total above £2.4m.
Lawyers were the biggest cost, with more than £1m going on "external legal services".
More than £176,000 went on staff, while the inquest's IT cost more than £240,000. Consultants cost nearly £88,000.
Video conferencing and "special visits" cost almost £370,000, because of witnesses giving evidence from France, the US and Nigeria. Running costs came to more than £260,000.
Murder claims
On top of this, Mr Al Fayed is paying, at least indirectly, for three separate legal teams at the inquest.
His Paris Ritz Hotel is represented at the proceedings and he is funding a separate set of lawyers for the family of Mr Paul.
Mr Al Fayed believes Diana and Dodi were murdered, and that the British intelligence service MI6 was behind the plot to kill them.
On Monday the inquest heard that an MI6 team was at the UK's embassy in Paris at the time of the crash.
Former ambassador Lord Jay said he did not think the intelligence service's presence had anything to do with the car crash which killed her.
He said the team was there "to liaise with the French authorities on issues such as counter-terrorism, anti-drugs work, security issues and to share intelligence on matters of foreign policy".
On Tuesday the inquest is expected to hear from Lord Fellowes, who was at the time the Queen's private secretary and also a brother-in-law of the Princess of Wales.
Next week Mr Al Fayed and former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove will give evidence.
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