Scottish Hospitals Inquiry costs: FOI release

Information requested

(1) As of the date of this request, please can you tell me the total costs incurred by your organisation in relation to the Scottish Hospitals public inquiry. If possible, please can you provide a breakdown of these costs (such as legal, staffing or the hire of external consultants).

(2) And please can you tell how much, if any, of this expense has been reimbursed by the public inquiry as per its mechanism for some participants to claim back legal expenses incurred.

(3) Again, if possible, please provide any details you hold of how much human resource has gone into your Scottish Hospitals Inquiry commitments (such as the number of staffing hours taken so far or how many officials have worked on the responses).

We contacted you for clarification regarding your request on the 30th July ’24. You clarified “this is cost incurred by the government responding to the inquiry not costs incurred as the inquiry sponsor.”

Response

The total response cost incurred by the Scottish Government in relation to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry from its establishment in August 2020 to June 2024 is £1,932,592.

This represents the combined total of staff costs, legal costs, agency and/or seconded staff costs and non-staff costs. A breakdown of each is provided below:

• Staff costs of £915,305;
• Legal costs of £756,958;
• Agency and seconded staff costs of £255,459; and
• Other non-staff costs of £4,870.

No costs have been reimbursed by the Inquiry.

A breakdown of the number of staff (either permanent employees of the Scottish Government, or agency/seconded staff employed for a period for the purpose of supporting the response activities) working on the response to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry (April 2021 to July 2024) is provided at Table 1 below.

Although the Inquiry was launched in August 2020, the response team was not established until April 2021.

Year	Jan	Feb	March	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
2021	N/A	N/A	N/A	1.7	2.7	6.7	6.7	8.7	7.7	7.7	7.7	9.7
2022	9.7	9.7	9.7	10.7	8.7	10.7	10.7	9	8	8	8	8
2023	8	8	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	4	4	4
2024	3	3	3	5	5	5	5	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Table 1 – Scottish Government’s Hospitals Inquiry Response Team Total Staff (recorded as Full Time Equivalent (FTE))

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