This is how much the Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard legal cases cost the NHS

NHS hospital trusts say they spent more than £420,000 in total on lawyers during disputes centred on Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans, and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) - a taxpayer-funded organisation which represents the interests of children embroiled in family court cases, says it spent just under £50,000 in total.

Bosses at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, where Charlie was treated, at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool - where Alfie was treated, and at Cafcass provided figures after the Press Association asked questions under freedom of information legislation.

Journalists asked the trusts and Cafcass how much they had run up in legal fees, over and above money routinely spent on salaried, in-house lawyers during litigation centred on Charlie and Alfie.

Alder Hey said £218 000, Great Ormond Street said £205,000 - that figure did not include VAT, Cafcass said almost £17,000 in Alfie's case and enarly £32,500 in Charlie's case.

Alfie, who suffered from a degenerative neurological condition doctors could not definitively identify, died in April 2018 shortly before his second birthday after his parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, from Liverpool, lost a legal battle lasting several months.

Specialists at Alder Hey said further life-support treatment was futile and should end.