Edinburgh Tram Inquiry: Final report sent to printers

The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry report has been completed and sent to the printers, officials have revealed.

It was handed over to the publishing company on 26 April and is expected to be with them for several weeks.

The inquiry was established in June 2014 to find out why the tram project was £400m over budget and five years late.

The probe, chaired by Lord Hardie, has cost the taxpayer more than £13m to date.

The vast majority of the inquiry's outgoings have been on staff and legal fees.

An inquiry spokesman said: "Lord Hardie's report into the Edinburgh Trams Project has been handed over to the publishing company and will be with them for several weeks."

The tram project was first mooted in 2003 when the then Labour-led Scottish Executive proposed building a network of tram lines at a cost of £375m by 2009.

When the SNP minority government was elected in 2007, it planned to scrap the project.

But that decision was overturned when the other parties in the Scottish Parliament voted in favour of pressing ahead.

After that, the government said it would not provide additional funding beyond the £500m committed by MSPs.

By the time the first trams started running on the 8.7 mile (14km) route in May 2014, the total cost of the project had soared to £776m.