Documents released under FOI reveal how Ministers ignored warnings about the relocation of sportscotland

Documents released under FOI reveal how Ministers ignored warnings about the relocation of sportscotland

The relocation of Scotland's sports agency (sportscotland) out of Edinburgh will waste money and damage sport, ministers were warned in an independent report before they took the decision. Consultants commissioned to assess the best place for sportscotland's headquarters concluded it should remain at its current base at Caledonia House in South Gyle.

In a report produced in 2004, but released only now under Freedom of Information legislation, they said the existing location was the most "financial, viable and sustainable". The consultants, PMP/Donaldsons, warned any move would have a "very major impact" on the organisation and would damage Scottish sport.

But in May this year, ministers announced that sportscotland's headquarters, and all 133 posts based there, would be transferred to Glasgow's East End, under the Scottish Executive's policy of dispersing jobs throughout the country.

New Edinburgh City Council leader Ewan Aitken said he could not see how the Executive had reached its decision, based on the conclusions of the report. He said he was not against sharing civil service jobs, but added: "There needs to be a logic about it, there needs to be a transparency and there needs to be a rationale that makes sense."

Ministers ignored transfer warnings (Evening News, 25 August 2006)