Edinburgh tram inquiry staff costs: FOI release

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

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