Costs associated with the Edinburgh Tram Enquiry: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/00078
Date received: 11 January 2018
Date responded: 23 January 2018

Information requested

I would be grateful if you could tell me how much the Scottish Government has spent to date on the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry. I would like to have the figure broken down into costs associated with:

• The Chairman

• Counsel – for the Inquiry and other parties to the Inquiry Solicitors – for the Inquiry and other parties to the Inquiry

• Special Adviser's to the Inquiry Any specialists used by other parties to the Inquiry and sanctioned by the Inquiry

• Administration Costs including the Inquiry Secretariat

Response

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

Detail	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	Total
Staff costs	385	1,212	1,332	833	3,762
Accommodation	173	333	326	183	1,015
Professional fees	127	573	721	542	1,963
IT	184	343	237	143	907
Miscellaneous	30	96	63	160	349
Total	899	2,557	2,679	1,861	7,996

All amounts in £000's

With regards to other costs relating to the Chair of the enquiry to date, I have concluded that an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) should 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 Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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 details of costs with Counsel, solicitors and special advisers I can advise that the Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is independent of the Scottish Government and not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

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