Peter Housden to explain £500m transport costs gap

Scotland’s top civil servant will be called on today to explain a £500 million difference in the reported costs of five transport projects.

Sir Peter Housden will be questioned by Holyroods Public Audit Committee. Picture: Comp

Sir Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government, will be questioned by Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee.

It is the first time Sir Peter has appeared before a Holyrood committee and he has already told MSPs that the Government is “open to suggestions” on how its reporting processes can be improved.

He has put a capital value of between £3.28 billion and £3.43 billion for five major transport projects: the new Forth crossing; the Aberdeen bypass; improvements to the M8, M73 and M74 motorways; improvements to the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway; and the new Borders railway.

But public spending watchdog Audit Scotland estimates the construction costs of the jobs at about £3.8 billion.

Risks

In a letter to the Public Audit Committee, Sir Peter described the projects as being “complex” and “technically challenging”.

He wrote: “We have welcomed Audit Scotland’s report on key transport projects and noted their confirmation that all five major projects under way in Scotland are well managed and have sound governance structures in place to mitigate the risks involved in these technically challenging and complex projects.

“We believe our reporting processes are sound but are always open to suggestions on their improvement.”

When the difference in the reported costs emerged, Iain Gray, the then convener of the committee, accused the Scottish Government of not reporting the full costs of the work.

It is “astonishing” that there is no standard framework for reporting the costs of such projects, he said at the time.

Speaking in June the former Labour leader said: “Obviously this is a lot of taxpayers’ money. Surely we are entitled to clarity and transparency about how this is being spent.”