While not yet formally approved by Ministers, and with all the major caveats on the figures that COSLA has previously made clear, the Scottish Government's own draft Outline Business Case envisages the establishment, for a period of at least two and a half years from January 2012, of a team of 60 FTE staff with a manager. This is "To enable appropriate governance and leadership of any transition".
The OBC suggests that programme and project costs have been estimated "based on generic project architecture" and they will have to be worked up in more detail in the fullness of time.
However the project team will be a mix of "officers, staff and external/interim consultancy". "Force based resources" are estimated at 150 staff at one day per week (ie 30 FTE).
The estimated programme costs for this two and a half year period are £21m.
These figures presumably do not include the staff numbers, time and costs for those not directly employed on the team, but instrumental in creating a single force.