Edinburgh tram fiasco: Scottish Government accused of failing to accept blame as minister defends decision

Scottish Government ministers have been accused of failing to accept their share of the blame for Edinburgh’s tram fiasco.

The line from Edinburgh Airport to the city centre was years late and millions of pounds over budget when it finally opened in 2014. And the inquiry chaired by Lord Hardie into what went wrong with the project criticised the the city council, its tram firm TIE and the Scottish Government for “a litany of avoidable failures”.

But in a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Transport Secretary Mairi McAllan defended the government’s decision to withdraw Transport Scotland’s support for the project in 2007 after the SNP’s bid to scrap the project had failed. And she told MSPs many of the changes recommended by Lord Hardie had been implemented “years ago”.

Lothian Tory MSP Miles Briggs said there was little in Ms McAllan’s statement to suggest SNP ministers had “accepted their role in the failures” around the project. He said: “The former Deputy First Mnister John Swinney is mentioned 156 times by name in the report, but not once today by the Cabinet Secretary in her statement."

He continued: “The Cabinet Secretary states that the only cause of failure attributed to the actions of ministers was the decision to reposition Transport Scotland as principal funder as opposed to project partner. That is the understatement of the century." And he quoted Lord Hardie saying “The actions of Scottish ministers and the limitations imposed by them on the involvement of officials in 2007 was a serious error and resulted in the failure by Scottish ministers to protect the public purse.”

Ms McAllan insisted changing Transport Scotland’s role was necessary “to avoid any uncertainty about where leadership of the project lay” and claimed the decision had “arguably protected the funds of the Scottish Government from being called upon in future years as the project languished”.

She also claimed the recent successful completion of the tram extension from the city centre to Newhaven showed that Transport Scotland’s involvement was not needed and undermined the report’s findings on the original project.

Edinburgh Southern Labour MSP Daniel Johnson said Lord Hardie had found the Scottish Government provided inadequate oversight of the funding and had relied on “covert influence” with no record or minute-keeping. Ms McAllan said his recommendations on record-keeping had been “instituted years ago”.

Lothian Tory MSP Sue Webber pointed to criticism in the report of Nick Smith, now the council’s head of legal services, for including false statements in reports to councillors. She said: “Councillors rely upon the accuracy of reports to enable them to take informed decisions, but it’s clear councillors were misled by high-level officials at the council. In the report Lord Hardie blasts Nick Smith and the city council’s legal department for inaccurate reports to councillors. Will the Cabinet Secretary lay out what action will be taken to hold those responsible to account and what reforms will be put in place to stop this happening again?"

Lord Hardie recommended ministers should consider introducing civil and criminal sanctions against those responsible for misleading councillors. Ms McAllan said: “We are giving careful consideration to both of those recommendations. Our view just now is that there may already be provision for such developments under the civil law of liability and under the criminal common law of fraud, but we need to consider that.”

There was criticism from all sides in parliament over the cost of the inquiry – £13 million – and the time it took – it was set up in 2014 and completed its public hearings in May 2018, but the report was only published in September. Ms McAllan said: “I understand and empathise with the public’s frustration at the length of time it has taken to conclude as well as the cost to the public purse.” She said because of its independence it was not for ministers to influence the inquiry’s proceedings and questions about the cost and time were for Lord Hardie to answer.

But she said: “The costs that can arise from public inquiries have to be one of the considerations when deciding whether or not to convene one.”

The council said that although he is now head of legal services, at the time of the tram project Nick Smith was a junior solicitor.