Committee ‘disappointed’ by Government response to public inquiries report

There is a “serious lack of transparency” in how recommendations made by public inquiries in Scotland are implemented, MSPs will be told.

Finance Committee convener Kenneth Gibson will also tell the Scottish Parliament the committee is “disappointed” with the response from ministers to an inquiry it carried out into the cost effectiveness of public inquiries.

Although there was a “general positive reception” from ministers to the work, Mr Gibson will tell MSPs the Government has “fallen short of accepting many of the practical actions we recommended”.

His comments will come in a debate after the committee’s report, published in December, recommended public inquiries should have agreed budgets and timescales.

That contrasts with the situation since 2007 – with Mr Gibson to tell MSPs that “over the past 18 years, Scottish ministers have commissioned 11 statutory public inquiries, with six of them ongoing”.

He will add that of these, “four have been running for over four years, with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry ongoing for 10 years.

The overall cost to the public purse has been more than £258 million since 2007, Mr Gibson will add.

He will also tell MSPs his committee is “concerned by the serious lack of transparency in how public inquiry recommendations are implemented”.

The committee had called on ministers “to establish a robust, transparent system for tracking and publicly reporting on the implementation of inquiry recommendations”, he will add.

Mr Gibson will say this was part of a range of findings and recommendations “designed to strike a balance between allowing flexibility to meet the unique circumstances of individual public inquiries, while strengthening financial control and promoting fiscal sustainability”.

He will add: “I welcome the Scottish Government’s general positive reception to our report, but am disappointed that it has fallen short of accepting many of the practical actions we recommended.”

As well as the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, there are public inquiries ongoing in Scotland into the death of Sheku Bayoh in police custody, and into the police investigation into the murder of Emma Caldwell in 2005.

Other inquiries are examining the Scottish Government’s response to Covid, and problems with the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh, with an inquiry also looking at the actions of disgraced neurosurgeon Sam Eljamel during his time working for NHS Tayside.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “The Scottish Government is grateful to the Finance Committee for its detailed scrutiny of this very important matter and there is much in the report that we agree on.

“I share the committee’s goal of ensuring that Scotland’s public inquiry system is transparent, accountable and fiscally responsible, while retaining the flexibility needed to meet the unique circumstances of each inquiry.

“We will take forward changes to improve the framework for future public inquiries as set out in our response to the committee’s report.”