Audit Scotland report at-a-glance

The auditor general for Scotland, Robert Black, has published his review of the arrangements for managing the delivery of the Edinburgh trams and Edinburgh Airport Rail Link projects.

Here is a summary of his main findings.

• Both projects went through the parliamentary approval process to obtain authority to proceed and were developed in response to national, regional and local transport strategies.
• The current anticipated final cost of Phase 1 of the tram project is £593.8m and estimated project costs were subjected to robust testing.
• The Scottish Executive committed to provide up to £500m for Phase 1a of the trams project and Edinburgh City Council a further £45m, with funding for Phase 1b yet to be confirmed.
• A total of £79m was spent on the project up to the end of May 2007, including £17m to take the project through the parliamentary process.
• Some "slippage" in the trams project occurred.
• There was a clear corporate governance structure in place to manage the trams project, well defined project management and organisation, sound financial management and reporting, good risk management procedures, and a procurement strategy aimed at minimising risk.
• The Edinburgh Airport rail link project (Earl) is expected to cost between £550 and £650m, but there was less certainty about current cost estimates as it is at a relatively early stage.
• Earl is unlikely to be delivered by the target date of the end of 2011.
• A lack of agreement over governance arrangements and a procurement strategy had obstructed progress with Earl, meaning a number of key decisions still needed to be made before there could be more certainty about the cost and time targets.
• There was a higher degree of uncertainty about the Earl project than might be expected.
• Earl is expected to be paid for mainly from public funds, but this had still to be settled.
• About £20m had been spent on the project so far, including £4m to take it through the parliamentary process.