Lovells has been absolved of any blame by the National Audit Office (NAO) after its legal fees went £500,000 over budget during a £2.1bn government outsourcing PFI project that nettedit fees of £3.3m.

The instruction, which ran from late 2001 to December 2003, saw Lovells advise the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on a contract to outsource a tranche of about 1,100 properties, largely made up of job centres, to Land Securities Trillium (LST).