Edinburgh Tram inquiry chair felt disclosure of £1m earnings was 'unreasonable'

Lord Hardie told MSPs he believed the disclosure would lead to journalists "pestering" him at his home, but conceded he was wrong about this. He said he had since accepted the information “should be in the public domain”.

In 2023, it emerged Lord Hardie had been paid £1,056,181.59 to chair the inquiry between 2014 and August 2021. The information was only published after an appeal by the Daily Record newspaper to the Scottish information commissioner.

READ MORE: Edinburgh tram inquiry report: The key figures criticised, including John Swinney, as Lord Hardie attacks ‘evasive’ and ‘incredible’ evidence

At the time, a spokeswoman for the inquiry said Lord Hardie was “being paid on the basis of a daily rate for the hours that he works on inquiry matters”, adding: "The daily rate is the standard fixed by the Scottish Government for retired judges."

Holyrood's finance and public administration committee is scrutinising the cost effectiveness of public inquiries in Scotland amid concerns they are swallowing up "significant sums of money".

The Edinburgh tram inquiry cost more than £13m and took nine years to publish its findings.

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During a meeting of the committee on Tuesday morning, Tory MSP Craig Hoy said Transport Scotland had been “very resistant” to the publication of Lord Hardie’s salary, and asked the retired judge if he was consulted about this.

Lord Hardie replied: “Yes, I was consulted about it, and I did indicate that I thought it was unreasonable. But I’ve accepted the position that it’s in the public domain and it should be in the public domain.”

Pushed on this, he said: “I thought, at one point, it was unreasonable that it was released because I anticipated that it would result - wrongly anticipated that it would result - in the media attending my house and pestering us. But they didn’t do that.”

Asked if this would have been reason enough not to put the information into the public domain, Lord Hardie said: “Well, without going into my personal circumstances, yes, because of health and other issues.”

The length and cost of the Edinburgh tram inquiry was frequently criticised. Established in June 2014, the final report was not published until 2023.

Lord Hardie told MSPs he was “always concerned about views expressed about the time it was taking, but there was really nothing else that could be done, given the challenges that we faced”.

Asked if he would have taken the job if he had known it would take nine years, he said: “I think I would have preferred to have spent my time with my grandchildren.”

Lord Hardie added: “Certainly, if anybody asked me now even to do a one-year inquiry, I think I would just go back to the grandchildren.”

In written evidence, Lord Hardie previously told the committee that former first minister Alex Salmond promised a "swift and thorough" inquiry into the tram debacle without any knowledge of what would be involved.

“The statement of the-then first minister merely raised expectations of the public about the early conclusion of the inquiry without the public realising that the statement had been made without any knowledge of what would be involved in undertaking an independent, transparent and thorough inquiry into the scandal of the Edinburgh tram project, which was a matter of significant public interest,” he said.