Citizens' Assembly of Scotland - Doing Politics Differently report: Scottish Government response

Annex A - Costs of the Citizens' Assembly of Scotland

The final cost of the Citizens' Assembly of Scotland was £0.938 million over two financial years.

In November 2019 the Scottish Ministers committed to provide a budget of £1.37 million to the Citizens' Assembly across both financial years that it would be sitting. The final cost of the Citizens' Assembly was £0.432 million below the original budget.

The original budget for the Citizens' Assembly included six in-person meetings. Due to public health restrictions related to the Covid pandemic, the Assembly met only four times in-person before moving to work online. This is the primary reason why Citizens' Assembly was delivered under budget. Further savings were made because Secretariat staff worked from home from March 2020 and office accommodation was no longer required.

Following the postponement of the work of Citizens' Assembly in March 2020 the Assembly was relaunched, working online, in August 2020. A revised budget of £0.288 million for completion of the remaining work was agreed. The revised budget, taken alongside costs to that date, was well below the original budget for the Assembly.