Edinburgh Tram Inquiry

The Edinburgh Tram inquiry is a public inquiry that is being held in Edinburgh to establish why the Edinburgh Trams project incurred delays, cost more than originally budgeted and delivered significantly less than was projected

1 Timetable
2 Terms of Reference
3 Core participants
4 Evidence
5 Cost
6 References
7 External links

Timetableedit

No time frame has been set for how long the inquiry will take1

On 5 June 2014, First Minister Alex Salmond announced a non-statutory public inquiry2 On 12 June 2014 Scottish Parliament were told that the inquiry would be headed by the former Lord Advocate, Andrew Hardie, Baron Hardie3 The Scottish Government subsequently announced on 7 November 2014 that the inquiry was to be upgraded to a statutory inquiry to ensure that key personnel would provide evidence4

The first preliminary hearing took place on 6 October 20151 It had been set back by a few weeks after Lord Hardie had a short unexpected stay in hospital5

Anticipating some complexity around legal representation of the parties involved, Lord Hardie asked core participants to consider what conflicts of interest might exist and provide written responses to the inquiry by 27 November6

Terms of Referenceedit

The terms of reference for the inquiry are as follows:7

To inquire into the delivery of the Edinburgh Trams project “the project”, from proposals for the project emerging to its completion, including the procurement and contract preparation, its governance, project management and delivery structures, and oversight of the relevant contracts, in order to establish why the project incurred delays, cost considerably more than originally budgeted for and delivered significantly less than was projected through reductions in scope
To examine the consequences of the failure to deliver the project in the time, within the budget and to the extent projected
To otherwise review the circumstances surrounding the project as necessary, in order to report to the Scottish Ministers making recommendations as to how major tram and light rail infrastructure projects of a similar nature might avoid such failures in future

The inquiry team is based in Edinburgh's Waverley Gate building, the capital's former General Post Office8

Core participantsedit

At the first preliminary hearing on 6 October 2015, Lord Hardie revealed that the parties who had applied for and been granted core participant status were: Bilfinger Construction UK, Carillion Utility Services, Edinburgh City Council, DLA Piper Scotland, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Scottish Ministers and Siemens1

The city council had decided not to revive its former arms-length transport firm Transport Initiatives Edinburgh Tie, therefore the former company could not be designated a core participant1

Evidenceedit

It was initially estimated that the inquiry might examine more than two million digital files and 200 boxes of documents as evidence9

The hearings are due to make use of large screens, to display documents as they are referred to during the proceedings6

Costedit

In August 2015, Edinburgh City Council announced that they expected to spend up to £2 million participating in the inquiry10 The council spending would include the costs of legal assistance that would be provided to former councillors and staff10

By July 2016, the inquiry itself had cost £37m, £1822m of this being staffing costs, and £716,000 being legal fees11

Referencesedit

^ a b c d "Edinburgh tram inquiry: Six million documents to be examined" BBC News 6 October 2015
^ "Edinburgh tram inquiry announced" BBC News 5 June 2014 Retrieved 14 December 2014
^ "Lord Hardie to chair inquiry into Edinburgh trams fiasco" BBC News 12 June 2014 Retrieved 14 December 2014
^ "Edinburgh Tram Inquiry" Press release Scottish Government 7 November 2014 Retrieved 28 March 2015
^ Grant, Alistair 17 August 2015 "Tram inquiry hearing postponed as judge in hospital" Edinburgh Evening News Retrieved 11 October 2015
^ a b Dalton, Alastair 8 October 2015 "The truth will out in Edinburgh tram inquiry" The Scotsman Retrieved 11 October 2015
^ "First Minister appoints judge for Edinburgh Trams Inquiry" Press release Scottish Government 12 June 2014 Retrieved 14 December 2014
^ Miller, David 11 December 2014 "Edinburgh tram inquiry: Key figures refused to co-operate" BBC News Retrieved 14 December 2014
^ Gourtsoyannis, Paris 11 December 2014 "Edinburgh trams inquiry ‘needs public help’" Edinburgh Evening News Retrieved 14 December 2014
^ a b "Edinburgh city council to spend up to £2m on tram inquiry" BBC News 13 August 2015
^ "Cost of inquiry into Edinburgh tram project hits £37m" BBC News 21 July 2016