In answer to a question in the House of Lords, Michael Bates said that £10.1 million had been spent by the end of June, and that for 2015 as a whole a further £2 million was budgeted.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday resort in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday. An investigation by Portuguese police failed to find her, or lodge any charges against anyone, and was closed in 2008.
After an appeal by the girl’s parents to the UK prime minister, David Cameron, London’s Metropolitan Police in 2011 launched its own investigation into her disappearance, dubbed Operation Grange, with 30 letters of request having since been sent to the authorities in 30 countries, including Portugal, and several procedures having been undertaken in and around Praia da Luz at the Met’s behest.
In the meantime, the case has formally been reopened in Portugal as well.
Over the years, the case has attracted unprecedented public interest in both countries.