Cost of Scotland’s public inquiries grows by £10m in two months to reach £240m

The overall bill for public inquiries in Scotland has increased by £10 million since MSPs began a probe into the cost of such work just two months ago.

Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee launched what was described as being a “short, focused inquiry into the cost-effectiveness of Scottish public inquiries” on April 4 this year.

At the time, the cost of the various inquiries that are ongoing was put at £230 million.

New data from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice) revealed that cost has risen further.

“To put this into context, the amount spent over the past 16 years is about the same as the annual revenue expenditure of a smallish local authority, or slightly more than the Scottish Government’s city and regional growth deal capital investment in 2025-26.”

The total spending includes £95.3 million, as of March 2025, on the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry – which was announced in 2014 to investigate the abuse of children in care and remains the most expensive in the country.

Meanwhile, the NHS has spent more than £3 million responding to inquiries since 2021-22.

A submission to the committee from NHS National Services Scotland (NHS NSS) revealed that in 2021 it established a dedicated public inquiries team to help respond to various inquiries.

Having this team “reduces duplication of effort, provides a single point of contact” and also helps give confidence that “the organisational response has been managed appropriately”.

In a written submission to MSPs on the committee, it confirmed that NHS NSS has “spent £3.1 million since 2021-22 in responding to public inquiries”.