Reading between the black lines: ‘John Swinney at heart of trams fiasco’

Published on Thursday 24 November 2011 00:00

FINANCE secretary John Swinney “personally” approved the decision to remove government transport experts from the ill-fated Edinburgh trams project, official documents have shown.

Ministers have been accused of an “unacceptable news blackout” after quango Transport Scotland released pages of heavily censored documents in response to a Freedom of Information request. But the documents do show that Mr Swinney endorsed a decision to remove Transport Scotland from the trams project board in 2007, indicating he was “content with the redefined role”.

The withdrawal of the Transport Scotland experts from the troubled scheme was heavily criticised in a damning report by public spending watchdog Audit Scotland.

Lothians MSP Kezia Dugdale said: “These documents place John Swinney at the heart of the trams fiasco. For the first time, we see a paper trail showing that the finance secretary personally ordered Transport Scotland experts to withdraw from the board. He needs to offer a full explanation as to why he took that decision and whether he will now apologise for such a serious error.”

The response to Labour’s Freedom of Information request contains whole pages that are blacked out. Labour will now ask the Scottish Information Commissioner to order full disclosure.

The trams project was devised by the previous Labour-Lib Dem administration at Holyrood. When the SNP came to power in 2007 it handed full control of delivery of the trams to City of Edinburgh Council.

The council set up Tie to deliver the trams project, but it has now been removed from the project following a prolonged contractual dispute with contractor Bilfinger Berger. The Scottish Government stepped in to oversee the project earlier this year, despite its long-standing opposition to the trams project. Project managers from Transport Scotland will now fill “key senior roles” to help complete the line between Edinburgh Airport and the city centre.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “A full account of the reasons behind the decision to withdraw Transport Scotland from the trams board was given to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee in March this year. With regard to this particular request, the sections withheld in our response related to other policy matters other than Edinburgh trams and we consider these sections withheld under the Freedom of Information guidance.”