Retired judge had ‘little or no guidance’ when establishing trams inquiry

The judge who chaired a probe into the Edinburgh trams fiasco said the process of setting up this public inquiry “gave the impression of reinventing the wheel”.

Lord Hardie revealed some of the issues the inquiry, which was announced in 2014, has faced in a letter to Holyrood’s Finance Committee.

With the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry based in Creative Scotland premises which were deemed “surplus to requirements”, Lord Hardie told MSPs while the property “had the appearance of a modern office with adequate IT connections” it turned out that this was “deceptive”.

He said for almost six months inquiry staff “struggled with inadequate IT connections which frequently failed” – saying this had a “significant” impact on morale, and was “a considerable waste of time and money during that time”.

Meanwhile he said there were delays in civil servants transferring from their existing jobs on to the inquiry team, with this resulting in a “delay to the initial progress of the inquiry”.

Lord Hardie stated: “The process of setting up the inquiry with accommodation, staff and other resources gave the impression of our reinventing the wheel.”

He added that there was “little or no guidance to assist with this stage of the inquiry”.

Lord Hardie, who is due to give evidence to the committee on Tuesday, also recalled that when Alex Salmond announced the inquiry in 2014 the then first minister promised a  “swift and thorough inquiry”.

This “raised expectations of the public about the early conclusion of the inquiry”, Lord Hardie said, as he added he had not been asked “to comment on the possibility of concluding a swift and thorough investigation”.

‘The inquiry published its final report in 2023 – with Lord Hardie finding that the project had a “litany of avoidable failures”.

The retired judge also told the committee as the inquiry was established on a non-statutory basis, reliant on cooperation and without the power to compel evidence, this had prevented him “from accessing material held by the City of Edinburgh Council and resulted in the refusal of key witnesses to co-operate with the inquiry”.

The Edinburgh Trams Inquiry cost £13.1 million – but Lord Hardie stressed to MSPs when spending on resources already funded by the public purse – such as some of the staffing and accommodation costs – were discounted, the net cost was £8.7 million.

He suggested that in future when reporting the cost of a public inquiry, ministers should “report its net cost to the public purse, after discounting expenditure already incurred on accommodation, staff and other resources, as well as the total cost”.

His comments came as it emerged that the cost of the public inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh in police custody has risen by £1 million in the last three months.

Lord Bracadale, who is carrying out the probe into Mr Byoh’s death, revealed that as of March 31 2025, the total cost of the inquiry is £24,799,743.

That includes staffing costs of almost £13.3 million, and administration and accommodation costs of nearly £6.8 million.

The inquiry, which was announced in 2019, is examining what happened to Mr Bayoh, 31, who died in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on May 3 2015 after being restrained on by six police officers.

Having heard 122 days of evidence, Lord Bracadale said that the inquiry was now moving on to closing submissions, before the final report is prepared.

The rise in costs was revealed in a a letter from Lord Bracadale to the Finance Committee as it continues its investigation into the cost effectiveness of public inquiries.

The work is being carried out after cost of public inquiries in Scotland has ballooned to £230 million since 2007.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We welcome the committee’s interest and look forward to hearing their views.

“Public inquiries are set up when no other avenue is deemed sufficient given the issues of public concern.

“In many cases, such as the Scottish Covid Inquiry, they are set up with the support of, or in response to calls from, the Scottish Parliament.

“Public inquiries operate independently of government and the chair has a statutory duty to avoid unnecessary costs.”