Public inquiries often involve significant sums of money. For the first time, a Holyrood committee is to examine the cost-effectiveness of public inquiries in Scotland.
According to Scottish legal firm Morton Fraser MacRoberts: “Public inquiries are set up to investigate issues of serious public concern. They scrutinise past decisions and events. They are used to establish facts, to learn lessons so that mistakes are not repeated, and to restore public confidence. By their nature, they are newsworthy – the public will always have an interest in the matters being considered by the inquiry.”
The remit of this inquiry into the cost-effectiveness of public inquiries in Scotland is:
The inquiry will not make recommendations on the merits or otherwise of individual Scottish Government decisions on whether to hold a specific public inquiry, or recommendations made by individual public inquiries.
Since January 2020, two statutory public inquiries have been established:
Three further inquiries, established prior to 2020, are still running:
In March 2024, the Scottish Government announced there will be a public inquiry into:
The Committee's call for views closed on Friday 9 May 2025.
The Committee asked the following 7 questions in the call for views:
The Committee received 12 responses to its call for views. Read the responses on Citizen Space at the following link:
Submissions received to call for views on Cost-effectiveness of Scottish Public Inquiries
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) produced a briefing to inform the Committee's inquiry. Read the briefing at the following link:
SPICe Briefing on Cost-effectiveness of Scottish Public Inquiries (260KB, pdf) posted 14 May 2025
The Committee plans to undertake the following activities for its inquiry:
The Committee has sent and received the following correspondence during the inquiry:
Letter from the Chair of the Eljamel Inquiry to the Convener of 13 May 2025
Letter from the Convener to the Chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry of 24 April 2025
Letter from the Convener to the Chair of the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry of 24 April 2025
Letter from the Convener to the Chair of the Eljamel Inquiry of 24 April 2025
Letter from the Convener to the Chair of the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry of 24 April 2025
Letter from the Convener to the Chair of the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry of 24 April 2025
Letter from the Convener to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic of 22 April 2025