The scrollbar is always bigger than needed, even when the panels would fit, i removed the "padding to be safe" and nothing wrong happened.
Is it still needed for something I overlooked ?
The attached patch make the scrollbar just appear when actually needed
The padding lets the list be scrolling a bit even if not completely filling, and is helpful to prevent occasional quirky / glitchy situations, which have occasionally happened, where the scrolling determination isn't working properly. It might be fine now, but the extra scrolling has been useful in the past.
Also, I'd also suggest discussion this on the forums...
Follow up here : http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8923