The cost of Scotland’s Child Abuse Inquiry has leapt by more than £2 million in the last quarter.

The £2,189,418 rise in spending by the inquiry amounts to a 62 per cent increase in spending so far on what is expected to become Scotland’s biggest and most expensive public inquiry ever.

The increased bill coincides with a ramping up in the activity of the inquiry into the abuse of children in residential care, which is about to begin public hearings.

But a leading representative of child abuse victims said more detail was needed to explain the added cost.

Alan Draper, parliamentary spokesman for In Care Abuse Survivors Scotland, said

The Inquiry has also published a schedule of these first sessions which begin last month and conclude on July 12th.

The inquiry has so far costs £5,724,468 since it began work in 2015.