SNP finances investigation costs double as no date set for Peter Murrell's next court appearance
The cost of the investigation into SNP finances has more than doubled in the past five months as prosecutors prepare their case against the estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon.
The Crown Office has now spent almost £460,000 - up from £206,000 in February - on the long-running probe.
It comes after Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, appeared in court in March charged with embezzlement. He made no plea during a private hearing and was granted bail.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said there was no update on when he would next appear in court.
Prosecutors have been working on the case since police completed their investigation - named Operation Branchform - in August last year and handed their findings to the Crown.
Murrell was SNP CEO for over twenty years before he stood down from the post in 2023. He was arrested later that year as part of the police probe into the party's finances, but released without charge. He was then charged in connection with embezzlement in 2024 and later appeared in court.
Joanna Cherry, a former SNP MP and serving KC, said: "I can't understand the delay in indicting Peter Murrell. It's way past time the detail of the charges against him were in the public domain."
A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: "Resources are being applied to this investigation, which includes an ongoing prosecution, in line with its significance.
"The extensive resourcing of this inquiry demonstrates that it has been taken seriously and that decisions have been based upon evidence not assumptions or external pressure.
"Prosecutors take decisions independently, free from political influence or external interference, relying on evidence and the law."
The Record previously revealed how taxpayers are set to foot the bill for the former senior Nationalist's legal costs. Solicitors acting for Murrell, 60, have had an application for legal aid approved.
According to the Scottish Legal Aid Board, an application for solemn legal aid by his solicitors was granted on April 30 and no payments have been made to date.
Police previously confirmed in March that Sturgeon and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie were no longer under investigation in the probe.
At the time, Sturgeon said: "I don't think there was ever a scrap of evidence that I had done anything wrong." In January this year, the former first minister announced she and Murrell had "decided to end" their marriage.
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