Holyrood’s Finance Committee to examine the cost-effectiveness of public inquiries

It will be the first time a Holyrood committee has examined the matter in depth, in Scotland.

The Finance and Public Administration Committee will consider issues including:

• how and why public inquiries are established
• whether they deliver value for money and the extent to which spending controls are necessary
• what measures could be implemented to ensure the effectiveness of public inquiries while maintaining their independence
• alternatives to the current model of public inquiries.

Finance and Public Administration Committee Convener Kenneth Gibson MSP said:

“Public inquiries often involve significant sums of money.  It’s an issue our members have raised concerns over in recent months.

“No Holyrood committee has examined the topic of statutory public inquiries before - in any level of depth - so this parliamentary investigation is timely and appropriate.”

Mr Gibson added:

“We want to examine whether public inquiries represent value for money, and whether spending controls can ever, realistically, be applied given the independent nature of inquiries.

“This has the potential to be a really interesting piece of work given the significant sums of money that public inquiries often involve.”

Call for views

The committee has launched a call for views which runs from 4 April until 9 May 2025.

The committee would like to hear from academics, think tanks, the legal sector, public bodies, voluntary sector and any individuals or groups with views on the cost effectiveness of public inquiries.

The committee will not make recommendations on the effectiveness of any specific, individual public inquiry.

There are seven questions in the call for views.  

Read the questions and have your say

Further information on the inquiry – including details of recent and current public inquiries in Scotland