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Bear in mind that, in the past, the SRA has revealed details of its legal costs. In October 2016, it revealed (in response to a request under its FOI Code) that it spent £17,781 on Blacker v Law Society [2016] EWHC 947 (QB). None of that sum was recovered, because Fraser J refused to award the SRA its costs.

Why, then, is there any reluctance to disclose the costs incurred by the SRA in the Leigh Day case? If the SRA is willing to disclose the level of costs in a small case, it must also disclose them in a big case.

The inevitable inference is that the SRA simply does not want the profession to know how much it spent on this. That is an appalling reflection on its senior management, who will have been the ones in control of the prosecution.