Monday June 22nd 2026
Edinburgh City Chambers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Expenses for Edinburgh councillors have been published over a year late, the Local Democracy Reporting Service can reveal.
The data, covering two years of expenses, was published sometime after midday last Thursday (18), including a year’s worth of expenses that was due on June 1 last year.
A leading transparency campaigner said the delay ‘reduces public trust’ and ‘builds suspicion there is something to hide’.
An Edinburgh Council spokesperson told the LDRS that the delayed publication was due to ‘human error’.
The expenses include the city paying out thousands in direct payments for travel, conference fees and accommodation.
The Scottish Government requires that councils publish payments to councillors information online by June 1 after the end of a financial year.
Data for 2024/25 was due on June 1, 2025, and data for 2025/26 was due on June 1 this year.
The data was published within a day of the LDRS beginning to make informal inquiries in the council about the information not being available online.
A document for each year showing a breakdown of what each payment to each councillor was for is not yet available on the council’s website as of 3pm on Monday (22).
But the council spokesperson said the documents were available on request, and would be published online.
Councils are not legally required to publish that data, but Edinburgh Council has done so for every year from at least 2013/14 to 2023/24.
Carole Ewart, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland, said: “Currently, the rules appear clear on transparency, accountability and accessibility.
“Councils must publish information on councillors’ salary, allowances and expenses for the previous financial year on their website by June 1 each year.
“Failing to publish information on time and in detail reduces public trust and builds suspicion there is something to hide.”
Ms Ewart added that councils should work to signpost information about payments to councillors better.
The council spokesperson said: “Council payments and expenses are reported regularly, in line with national guidance.
“Unfortunately, there was a delay to the publication of the 24/25 and 25/26 documents due to human error, but these are now available on the council website.”
Payments to councillors documents list what costs were incurred by councillors during the year by category, and whether the costs were paid directly by the council or councillors were reimbursed by it for the expense.
Payments directly by the council cover items such as travel and costs for conferences, with those items often agreed at committees.
For those costs, the council pays the expense on behalf of the councillor, rather than the councillor asking the city for reimbursement.
Many councillors have low payments and reimbursements, usually a bus or rail pass and coverage for phone bills, though some councillors have costs paid for and reimbursed more.
In 2024/25, former council leader and current Labour councillor Cammy Day had the most costs paid for by the city, with £2,179.67 in expenses on top of his then £50,843 per year salary.
The sum included several totals paid direct by the council, including £1,050.35 for travel, £350.57 for accommodation, £475 for conference fees and £252 for technology.
He also expensed £51.75 for car mileage.
Next on the list was licensing board vice-convener Jason Rust, who had costs the tune of £1,920.59 covered by the council.
This included direct payments of £1,555 for travel and £156 for technology expenses, while he expensed the city £209.59 for meals, all on top of his £32,022 per year salary.
Rounding out the top three was Labour councillor Lezley Marion Cameron, who was then housing convener, having costs of £1,477.87 covered on top of her then £32,481 per year salary.
She was paid £1,313.87 in travel and £164 in technology costs by the council.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat councillor and then-group leader Kevin Lang, fellow party councillor Pauline Flannery, and Labour councillor Scott Arthur took no payments from the council above their salary.
In 2025/26, no councillors expensed any costs to the city, with all costs being directly paid by the council.
Conservative councillor Phil Doggart was covered the most, with £2,222.17 in costs being paid for directly by the council, on top of his £25,982 per year salary.
They included £1,660 for travel, £475 for conference fees and £87.17 in conference costs.
In second place was Lezley Marion Cameron, now depute convener of the council, with the city paying for £1,472.20 in direct payments on top of her £38,481 salary.
Of that, £1,319 came from travel, while the remaining £153.20 going to technology costs.
Rounding out the top three was council leader and Labour councillor Jane Meagher, with £1,401.61 in payments by the council being made on top of her £71,519 salary.
Some £776.22 of this was for travel, £475 was for conference fees, £65.20 was for accommodation and £86.19 was for technology costs.
Liberal Democrat councillor and Lord Provost Robert Aldridge did not receive any payments or get any costs reimbursed by the council.
Nor did three other Liberal Democrat councillors, Kevin Lang, Pauline Flannery and Sanne Dijkstra-Downie.
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