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.

In its latest update to MSPs, Spice said: “When put into 2024-25 prices, the total cost of the above inquiries is £240 million (thus far).

“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”.