Direct answer
No UK law firm or transaction-services firm publishes a due diligence fee or rate card: every workstream is quoted per engagement. The nearest published UK figure is the court's solicitors' guideline hourly rates, effective 1 January 2026: £295 to £579 an hour for a Grade A solicitor (8+ years' experience), depending on location band. Those rates exist for the summary assessment of court costs, not as a price list for deal work, so use them as a reference point when you read a legal quote.
The honest way to budget diligence is to get a written quote per workstream, with the hours, grades and rates behind it, and add them up. The builder below does the adding; the table after it shows the published guideline rates by grade so you can sense-check the legal hourly rates you are quoted.
Budget builder
Diligence budget builder
Enter each quote you hold (or leave a workstream at zero if it is out of scope). The tool sums them and shows each workstream's share, ready for an IC paper.
| Workstream | Quote (£) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Legal due diligence | - | |
| Financial DD (FDD) | - | |
| Tax DD | - | |
| Commercial DD | - | |
| IT and cyber DD | - | |
| Environmental (Phase I) | - | |
| W&I premium (underwriter quote, if used) | - | |
| Adviser fees | £0 | |
| Total incl. W&I | £0 |
Nothing is pre-filled because no firm publishes its due diligence fees. Inputs stay in this browser tab.
Solicitors' guideline hourly rates (from 1 January 2026)
| Band | Grade A | Grade B | Grade C | Grade D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London 1 | £579 | £393 | £305 | £210 |
| London 2 | £422 | £327 | £276 | £157 |
| London 3 | £319 | £262 | £209 | £146 |
| National 1 | £295 | £247 | £201 | £142 |
| National 2 | £288 | £247 | £200 | £142 |
- Grade A: Solicitors and legal executives, 8+ years
- Grade B: Solicitors and legal executives, 4+ years
- Grade C: Other solicitors and legal executives
- Grade D: Trainees, paralegals, other fee earners
Per hour, excluding VAT. Source: HM Courts & Tribunals Service, Solicitors' guideline hourly rates, checked 25 October 2026. These are guideline figures for assessing court costs, banded by where the firm is based; firms set their own transaction rates.
Who quotes each workstream
| Workstream | Usually quoted by |
|---|---|
| Legal due diligenceCorporate, contracts, litigation, IP; property and employment seats join as needed. | Transaction solicitors |
| Financial DD (FDD)Quality of earnings, working capital and net debt. | Transaction-services accountants |
| Tax DDCT, VAT, PAYE, employment-related securities and tax-deed scope. | Transaction tax advisers |
| Commercial DDMarket, customers and plan; often done in-house by trade buyers. | Strategy boutique or in-house |
| IT and cyber DDApplication inventory, cyber posture, pen-test review. | Technology specialists |
| Environmental (Phase I)Phase I desk study on operational sites. Phase II intrusive work is quoted separately. | Environmental consultants |
| W&I insuranceA premium on the limit of cover bought; not an adviser fee. | Underwriter, via a broker |
What moves the quote
- Size and complexity of the target. More entities, sites, contracts and revenue lines mean more hours in every workstream.
- Jurisdictions. Each additional tax residence or operating country adds local tax and legal review, often through the firm's network.
- Regulated sector. FCA, CQC or Ofcom oversight brings a regulatory workstream and an approval timetable of its own.
- Vendor co-operation. A disorganised data room and slow Q&A turnaround add hours, and a fixed quote will be repriced for them.
- Carve-out vs trade sale. A carve-out needs stand-alone cost and separation analysis that a whole-company sale does not.
- Grade mix and firm. Ask for hours by grade and the rate per grade; that is what makes two quotes comparable.
This page is anchored to UK primary legislation and named regulator guidance only. Not legal advice. Confirm position with your appointed adviser before signing.