Edinburgh tram inquiry staff costs: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


Information requested

I would like to request details on all staffing costs related to the Edinburgh tram inquiry since it was set up, broken down by financial year.

Could you also please confirm all payments made to the inquiry chairman since the inquiry was set up, broken down by financial year.

Please also confirm the total cost of the tram inquiry since it was set up, broken down by financial year”.

Response

I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act for information in relation to the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry. The staffing expenditure broken down by financial year is as follows:

  2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 Total
£000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s
Staff Costs 385 1,212 1,332 1,033 308 117* 4,387

* April to August 2019

With regards to other costs relating to the Chair of the enquiry to date, I have concluded that that the exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) should continue to be applied to the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.  This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

In relation to the total cost of the Inquiry since it was set up, the totals, broken down by financial year, are as follows:

  2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 Total
  £000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s £000’s
Total Costs 899 2,557 2,679 2,935 1,166 324* 10,560

* April to August 2019

About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

Back to top