Abuse inquiry bill rises to £111million as cost to the taxpayer continues to soar

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

The cost to taxpayers of Scotland's long-running historical child abuse inquiry has risen to £111million, the Mail can reveal.
The disclosure comes amid a growing row over the cost of public inquiries which has hit £230million since 2007.
Latest figures show Police Scotland has spent more than £12million in relation to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), which is chaired by Lady Smith and began back in 2015.
The inquiry itself has cost £98.7million so far meaning the known bill to the public purse is now around £111million – but the true total is likely to be higher when as yet unpublished spending by other agencies such as the Crown Office are included.
Police Scotland's finance department accounts shows that the force's costs in relation to the SCAI, including legal representation, are £12.3million.
Launched in 2015 by the then Education Secretary Angela Constance, the SCAI was aimed at 'shining a light in the dark corners of the past'. But the cost of the SCAI is now rising by more than £1million a month – with no estimate of its completion date.
First Minister John Swinney has suggested the inquiry could also examine the grooming gangs scandal – which could send costs soaring further.
The SCAI has produced a series of hard-hitting reports into a range of institutions including fee-paying Gordonstoun School in Moray, the King's former school. Lady Smith found that children who boarded there were 'exposed to risks of sexual, physical and emotional abuse'.
It also produced a damning report on the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which ran the notorious Smyllum Park orphanage near Lanark.
The inquiry itself, though, has come under fire and sparked a spin-off probe into how it dealt with a survivor of abuse who later died.
Earlier this year, Melanie Watson told how her brother Kevin Sutherland gave evidence to the SCAI in 2022 but was later shocked to learn his case details were on the web.
She claimed Lady Smith's inquiry was '100 per cent to blame' for his suspected suicide last December, after it published his name online.
The incident is now under review by Jason Beer, KC, further adding to the overall cost. In April, MSPs on Holyrood's finance committee announced they were to open an investigation into the cost of public inquires in Scotland.
Lord Hardie, who led the £13million inquiry into the Edinburgh Tram Project, has also called for a new parliamentary body to be set up to monitor the way the Scottish Government responds to the findings of inquiries it sets up.
He said there is a perception the reports 'sit on ministers' shelves gathering dust', leading to concerns over 'wasted public money'.
Since 2007, five inquiries have been completed – the ICL Stockline disaster, fingerprinting, contaminated blood, Edinburgh's trams and the healthcare acquired infections – at a cost of £42.6million. Five more are ongoing – on child abuse, hospitals, Sheku Bayoh, Covid-19 and rogue doctor Sam Eljamel.
SCAI declined to comment on the Police Scotland figures. A government spokesman said: 'Public inquiries operate independently of government and the chair has a legal duty to avoid unnecessary costs.'