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The total cost of Scotland’s historical child abuse inquiry to taxpayers has soared to nearly £120million, the Mail can reveal.
Prosecutors said the bill for the Crown Office to assist the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), launched back in 2015 by embattled Justice Secretary Angela Constance, was more than £5million so far.
It means taxpayers have shelled out about £119.8million including costs run up by other agencies such as Police Scotland – and the bill continues to rise.
The disclosure comes amid a row over the overall cost of public inquiries which has risen to nearly £260million, sparking claims that they have become ‘lawyers’ picnics’.
Last night Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘This inquiry is crucial in helping to ensure victims get the answers they deserve, but costs cannot continue to spiral out of control.
‘Questions must be answered as to why the bill has risen so much in such a short space of time given the huge pressures on the Scotland’s finances.
‘These costs will undoubtedly also be putting pressures on other aspects of our justice system which has been slashed to the bone after years of cuts from the SNP.
The SCAI report said child abuse was 'normalised' at Gordonstoun School in Moray
Lady Smith, chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, found that children who boarded at Gordonstoun were ‘exposed to risks of sexual, physical and emotional abuse’
‘Given the inquiry has already been running for over a decade, ministers must guarantee ongoing costs will deliver value for the taxpayer.’
Bosses of the SCAI revealed last year that the cost of the statutory probe itself had reached £102million – the first time it had risen above £100million.
Police Scotland has spent an additional £12.3million, meaning the known cost so far to the public purse when Crown spending is taken into account is £119.8million.
It comes as the force continues to battle financial problems amid an explosion in violent crime, which is up by 73 per cent since 2021-22 according to the recent Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.
Launched in 2015 by the then Education Secretary Ms Constance, the SCAI was aimed at ‘shining a light in the dark corners of the past’.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr
The SCAI has produced a series of hard-hitting reports into a range of institutions including fee-paying Gordonstoun School in Moray, the King’s former school.
It said child abuse was ‘normalised’ at the school with an ‘extremely violent culture’ in some boarding houses.
Lady Smith found that children who boarded at fee-paying Gordonstoun School in Moray were ‘exposed to risks of sexual, physical and emotional abuse’.
It also produced a damning report on the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which ran the notorious Smyllum Park orphanage near Lanark, which has committed to paying in up to £10million to a Scottish Government redress fund for abuse survivors.
Last year a former top judge raised fears that taxpayers’ money is being wasted because SNP ministers do not act on the recommendations of public inquiries.
Lord Hardie, who led the long-running £13million inquiry into the Edinburgh Tram Project, called for a new parliamentary body to be set up to monitor the way the Scottish Government responds to the findings of inquiries it sets up.
The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which ran Smyllum Park, has committed to paying in up to £10million
Last month (DEC) a Holyrood committee recommended that public inquiries should have fixed budgets and defined timescales to drive down rising costs.
The unanimous report by a cross-party group of MSPs recommended that any notification for an extension of an inquiry should be reported to parliament.
Since 2007, when the SNP took power, the report notes 11 Scottish public inquiries - six of which are still active - cost the taxpayer £258.8million in 2024-25 prices.
Kenny Gibson, the committee's convener, said: ‘It was sobering to hear from one witness that in Australia, public inquiries are referred to as “lawyers' picnics” for the level of fees earned, and there's a view that the situation is similar in Scotland.’
A Crown Office spokesman said the SCAI is ‘examining the profound harm caused to children by abuse in institutions and supporting that work is an important public responsibility’.
He said: ‘The expenditure reflects specialist teams working over several years to review complex historical material so the inquiry can properly establish the facts and criminal cases can be prosecuted.’
The SCAI, chaired by retired High Court judge Lady Smith, declined to comment on the latest figures but last years its bosses said they continue to ‘make excellent progress towards fulfilling its wide-ranging terms of reference’.
The Scottish Government said public inquiries ‘operate independently of government and the chair has a legal duty to avoid unnecessary costs’.