The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry has now run for more than five years. Its own published total expenditure, up to the end of December 2025, is £31,081,500. The Inquiry also states that this figure covers only processed invoices, that costs are updated quarterly, and that final costs will be published only when the Inquiry closes (Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, 2026).

That may be justified if Scotland learns the fullest possible lessons from serious failures in the construction and opening of major NHS hospitals. But that is precisely the point. After such a long and costly process, Scotland should not settle for failure-only learning.

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry was rightly established to investigate grave concerns about the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh. Its remit covers planning, design, construction, commissioning and, where appropriate, maintenance, including issues relating to ventilation, water contamination and other key building systems (Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, 2020).

Nothing in this argument should be read as criticism of Lord Brodie or as an attempt to expand the Inquiry beyond its lawful remit. The point is different. A legal inquiry can examine what went wrong within its terms of reference and still leave Scotland with a further public-learning question.

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