Costs incurred in relation to the Scottish Covid public inquiry: FOI response (reference 0512)

22 July 2024

20 August 2024

As of the date of this request (22/7/24) please can you tell me the total costs incurred by your organisation in relation to the Scottish Covid public inquiry. If possible, please can you provide a breakdown of these costs (such as legal, staffing or the hire of external consultants). And please can you tell how much, if any, of this expense has been reimbursed by the public inquiry as per its mechanism for some participants to claim back legal expenses incurred. Again, if possible, please provide any details you hold of how much human resource has gone into your Scottish Covid public inquiry commitments (such as the number of staffing hours taken so far or how many officials have worked on the responses).

Scottish Enterprise played a significant role in supporting businesses during the pandemic, including delivering almost £220 million of Covid-19 related support to around 4,000 businesses employing more than 70,000 people. As a result of our direct and significant role, our initial exercise of identifying information potentially relevant to the Inquiry identified over 10 million pieces of data across our systems. Scottish Enterprise’s engagement with the Inquiry to date has involved:

• responding to the Inquiry’s requests to provide information on the number and types of document held;
• applying for and being granted core participant status to help enable meaningful participation in the process;
• answering a number of detailed questions about Scottish Enterprise and our role in providing support to businesses during the pandemic;
• responding to formal requests for information from the Inquiry in relation to the various Covid-19 business support funds Scottish Enterprise was involved in;
• attendance at an Inquiry hearing to seek to understand the likely timescales and scope of the Inquiry;
• consideration of attendance at the scheduled business, welfare and financial support impact hearings later this year.

Costs incurred by Scottish Enterprise in relation to the Inquiry were for outsourced legal advice, provided from February 2023 to July 2024. This Inquiry is novel for Scottish Enterprise in many respects. Appropriate expert advice was sought to ensure we met and continue to meet our legal obligations to help the Inquiry to consider relevant evidence and provide useful recommendations. Throughout our engagement, we have endeavoured to assist the Inquiry by understanding the process and providing relevant and timely responses covering the wide range of activities we were involved in.

Total costs for outsourced legal advice in relation to the Scottish Covid public inquiry to date are £50,340.00. Work on the Inquiry that was carried out by our own staff has not been separately recorded in terms of cost or resource, therefore under section 17 of FOISA this information is not held. Scottish Enterprise has not claimed back any expenses incurred.