Edinburgh Tram Public Inquiry: associated costs: FOI release
- Published
- 27 November 2018
- Topic
- Public sector, Transport
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Date received: 23 October 2018
Date responded: 26 November 2018
“I would be grateful if you could tell me how much the Scottish Government has spent to date on the Edinburgh Tram Public Inquiry.
I would like to have the figure broken down into the costs associated with :
1. The Chairman.
2. Counsel for the Inquiry.
3. Solicitors for the Inquiry.
4. Administration costs including the Inquiry Secretariat.
5. Specialist Advisers engaged by the Inquiry.
6. Counsel for the Parties to the Inquiry.
7. Solicitors for the Parties to the Inquiry.
8. Specialist Advisers used by the Parties to the Inquiry which has been sanctioned by the Inquiry.”
Response
I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act for information in relation to the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry and your response to our clarification that advised on the categorisation of expenditure that is actually possible. That expenditure broken down by those categories and financial years is as follows:
| 2014-15 |
2015-16 |
2016-17 |
2017-18 |
2018-19* |
Total |
|
| £000’s |
£000’s |
£000’s |
£000’s |
£000’s |
£000’s |
|
| Staff costs |
385 |
1,212 |
1,332 |
1,033 |
275 |
4,237 |
| Accommodation |
173 |
333 |
326 |
342 |
26 |
1,200 |
| Professional fees |
103 |
561 |
721 |
848 |
82 |
2,315 |
| Transport Scotland Legal fees** |
|
|
|
49 |
56 |
105 |
| IT |
184 |
343 |
237 |
182 |
52 |
998 |
| Miscellaneous |
54 |
108 |
63 |
481 |
61 |
767 |
| Total |
899 |
2,557 |
2,679 |
2,935 |
552 |
9,622 |
*Expenditure from 1st April to 30th September 2018.
**Expenditure incurred by Transport Scotland as a core participant in the Inquiry added for completeness.
With regards to other costs relating to the Chair of the enquiry to date, I have concluded 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 details of costs with Counsel, solicitors and Special Advisers I can advise that the Scottish Government does not hold full details of this information. The figures disclosed above represent the legal and professional fees which we have been able to extract from the data we hold. 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.
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 Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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