MILLIONS BLOWN ON FLOPS AND FAILURES
INFRASTRUCTURE
GLASGOW AIRPORT RAIL LINK Doomed rail project that swallowed some £30million of taxpayers’ cash before being cancelled in 2009 on cost grounds. COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY IT SYSTEM Government officials costed the CAP futures project at £102million in 2012, of which £50million was for the IT system. By 2015, the costs had spiralled to £178million. CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh had £ 8.5million of Government funding committed in 2008. The 2011-12 Government draft budget indicated that total capital spending would be around £250million. PRESTWICK AIRPORT The Government bought the ailing airport for £1 in 2013. The purchase business plan estimated that Prestwick would require a loan of £21.3million up to 2023. A revised business plan in May 2014 indicated that it would require £39.6million of support up to 2022.
HEALTH
NHS 24 HELPLINE In 2009, NHS 2 started work on a new telephone helpline project, stating the cost would run to £75.8million. Audit Scotland reported in June 2016 that the project is expected to cost £131million – and will still not be rolled out across Scotland until the end of this year. BED-BLOCKING Bed-blocking by hospital patients who are ready to go home but cannot leave because of delays in the system cost the Scottish NHS around £110million over the past year – despite Health Secretary Shona Robison vowing to eradicate the problem. DRUG WASTE This is estimated to cost the NHS £ million a year, including unnecessary prescribing or drugs being unused or only partially used. PRIVATE HOSPITALS In 2015 the NHS spent at least £38million sending patients to private hospitals to help meet waiting time targets or access specialist care.
EDUCATION AND JUSTICE
The estimated development cost of the Curriculum for Excellence ran to £110million. In 2012, it emerged that Education Scotland’s bill for travel, consultants, conferences and external advisers was £10.3million. Recently, it was revealed that Police Scotland had written off £1million- worth of debt considered ‘unrecoverable’ by the force. The total cost of Lord Bonomy’s largely rejected legal reform report was £330,000.
ENVIRONMENT
MONEY SENT ABROAD Through both its ‘climate justice’ and ‘international development’ funds, the Government has committed to spending £15million on projects in developing countries such as Zambia, Malawi and Pakistan over the coming years – despite the UK Government annually spending around £12billion of taxpayers’ money on overseas aid. FAILED WAVE POWER COMPANIES More than £15million of public money was written off as part of a failed attempt to make Scotland the ‘wave power’ capital of the world. Pelamis and Aquamarine received millions of pounds in grants from the Scottish Governments and various enterprise agencies as they attempted to harness the power of Scotland’s oceans. Both green energy firms subsequently went bust. CLIMATE CHALLENGE FUND Since 2008, the Government has handed out £75.7million to encourage ‘low carbon behaviour’. Recent groups to benefit have included the Shia Asna Islamic Centre in Glasgow, which received £135,000 to encourage Muslims in the city to increase energy efficiency in their homes.
LEGAL FEES
Scottish Government has spent more than £370,000 in legal fees defending its alcohol minimum pricing move from legal action from the drinks industry. The Scottish Government has paid £500,000 in legal fees incurred by court action over its Named Person scheme. In 2011, it emerged that Alex Salmond had spent £100,000 on a court battle to block the publication of a document spelling out the financial implications of his local income tax plans.
PET PROJECTS
The controversial Scottish Islamic Foundation, run by SNP campaigner Osama Saeed, received £ 00,000 worth of Scottish Government patronage. MyGaelic.com – designed as the Gaelic equivalent of Facebook – received £250,000 but attracted only 1,500 users. In 2010, it emerged that 119,800 small Saltires were bought for more than £260,000. In addition, 22 large Saltires at more than £70 each were bought to fly from Scottish Government buildings. Two flags were also purchased for limousines. The cost of holding the 2014 independence referendum ran to £15.8million. The Scottish Government also spent £800,000 on printing copies of its Scotland’s Future White Paper on how it imagined an independent Scotland would work.