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ETI-17

Governance Structure

Edinburgh Tram Inquiry · Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Report · Issued 19 September 2023 · Addressed to: City of Edinburgh Council

Government responseCity of Edinburgh Council: Accepted (Dec 2023)

DeliveryNo statement from City of Edinburgh Council found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation, Chapter 25 Recommendation 17 (paragraph 25.229)

The governance structure for the delivery of a major project such as a light rail scheme should follow the published guidance and should ensure that there is clarity regarding the respective roles of the various bodies and individuals involved in its delivery. In particular, the chairman of the company responsible for the procurement and management of the project should not also be its chief executive.

Edinburgh Tram Inquiry, Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Report · 19 Sep 2023 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

In December 2023, Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council, agreed that future governance structures for major projects must follow up to date guidance and clearly set out the roles and responsibilities of bodies and individuals (Andrew Kerr response, Dec 2023). He recommended that it adopt the recommendation and seek assurance that these roles are understood (Andrew Kerr response, Dec 2023). The record holds no update since the Council's response of December 2023 (Andrew Kerr response, Dec 2023).

Sources

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record above reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.

Government response

●City of Edinburgh Council · Accepted · 14 Dec 2023

Words of: Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive, City of Edinburgh Council, report "Response to the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry" to the Council, 14 December 2023 (item 7.1)

The Inquiry Report describes difficulties in the governance of the first phase of tram delivery as a result of complexity in the governance structure and also due to a lack of understanding by individuals and bodies as to their roles and responsibilities.

It is agreed that in future the Council should ensure that the governance structure follows up to date guidance and importantly clearly sets out the roles and responsibilities of bodies and individuals. The Council should also seek assurance that the roles and responsibilities are clearly understood and a mechanism for this is set out at Recommendation 18.

It is recommended that the Council should adopt this Recommendation.

Response document: Response to the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry (item 7.1)

Site note: This passage is from the Chief Executive's report to the City of Edinburgh Council meeting of 14 December 2023. That day the Council agreed "to implement the actions as outlined in appendix one and appendix three" of the report (minute, item 7). The same words were in the report to the Transport and Environment Committee of 16 November 2023.

Delivery

No statement on delivery from City of Edinburgh Council has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.