Criminal Sanctions for Misleading Information
Edinburgh Tram Inquiry · Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Report · Issued 19 September 2023 · Addressed to: Scottish Government
Government responseScottish Government: Under consideration (Nov 2023)
DeliveryNo statement from Scottish Government found
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, Chapter 25 Recommendation 23 (paragraph 25.235)
In addition to any civil liability arising from any sanction introduced in accordance with Recommendation 22, the Scottish Ministers should consider whether there is a need for a statutory criminal offence involving strict liability once it is established that the information and/or report was misleading by reason of the inclusion of false statements or the omission of relevant facts.
Edinburgh Tram Inquiry, Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Report · 19 Sep 2023 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
In November 2023, Màiri McAllan, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, stated that consideration was being given to creating a statutory criminal offence, noting an initial view that provision might already exist under the criminal common law of fraud (Màiri McAllan response, Nov 2023). The Minister confirmed that work to consider the recommendation would continue (Màiri McAllan response, Nov 2023). The record holds no update since the Scottish Government's response of November 2023 (Màiri McAllan response, Nov 2023).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.
Government response
●Scottish Government · Under consideration · 2 Nov 2023
As for what the Government can do, the report recommended to us the development of specific sanctions under the civil law of damages, and made a call for a criminal statutory offence. We are giving careful consideration to both those recommendations. Our current view is that there might already be provision for such developments under the civil law of delictual liability and the criminal common law of fraud, but we will continue to consider the matter.
Response document: Meeting of the Parliament, 2 November 2023, Official Report: Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Report
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Scottish Government 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.