SO MUCH FOR A ‘LEAN’ REGIME
Rocketing cost as Sturgeon expands team to record size
THE cost of Nicola Sturgeon’s top team has swelled to a record high – despite a pledge to create a ‘leaner’ government.
The First Minister yesterday completed the biggest overhaul of the Scottish Government since the SNP came to power in 2007.
She recruited another nine junior ministers to her team, after a day of drama on Tuesday which saw three Cabinet Secretaries removed from their job and another one shifted to a lesser role.
There are now a record 11 Cabinet Secretaries and 14 junior ministers alongside Miss Sturgeon.
When the SNP was in opposition, it promised a ‘leaner’ government and Alex Salmond’s first top team consisted of only five Cabinet Secretaries and ten junior ministers. But the tranche of additions means the pay bill – including each minister’s MSP and ministerial salary – has soared by £1million since then, to around £2.3million.
In addition to the expanded ministerial team there are 14 ‘special advisers’ employed by the Government, with their annual cost to the taxpayer set to soar towards £1million this year.
Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘Now we have a millionpound Cabinet with a further 14 junior ministers and a legion of special advisers, all at taxpayers’ expense.
‘More than 40 per cent of SNP MSPs are now part of a complex matrix of ministers. That will make it harder to pin down the action we want the Government to take. With crises in health and education, the public will be questioning what on earth they are getting for their money.’
The nine new ministers appointed yesterday included seven who were elected to Holyrood for the first time in 2016.
These include Kate Forbes, now Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy; Claire Haughey, who takes the mental health brief from Maureen Watt; and Gillian Martin, given responsibility for further education, higher education and science following her predecessor Shirley-Anne Somerville’s promotion.
Other 2016 starts in the new team are Ash Denham, who takes on community safety, Ben MacPherson in the expanded brief of Europe, migration and international development, Mairi Gougeon in a new role covering rural affairs and the natural environment, and Ivan McKee, who takes responsibility for trade and investment.
Christina McKelvie was appointed to a new role covering older people and equalities, and Graeme Dey takes on parliamentary business and veterans.
Three Cabinet Secretaries and three ministers left government and will be eligible for ‘resettlement’ grants worth 25 per cent of their ministerial salaries. This will add tens of thousands of pounds in costs to the public purse.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown, Health Secretary Shona Robison and Communities Secretary Angela Constance left the Cabinet. Exiting junior roles were Minister for International Development and Europe Dr Alasdair Allan, Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs Annabelle Ewing.
Scottish Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: ‘In Nicola Sturgeon’s Government, it’s harder to avoid a ministerial brief than to land one. The few who’ve been left out must wonder what on earth they’ve done wrong.
‘The SNP brags about being transparent, responsible with taxpayers’ cash and quite unlike any other government. The events of the last few days prove that to be nonsense.’
Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said: ‘The real change Scotland wants and needs won’t come from changing the odd Cabinet Secretary or appointing a couple of junior ministers, it will come from changing the Government.’
After unveiling her full top team, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The new ministers I am announcing today bring a range of fresh talent to the Scottish Government, ensuring that we are equipped to deal with the challenges and maximise the opportunities facing the people of Scotland.’
The Scottish Government said the changes have increased the cost of the Cabinet and ministers by £109,304. A spokesman said: ‘Since 1 April, 2009, Scottish ministers have declined to accept their full salary entitlement, and their take-home pay remains at 2008-09 levels.
‘The overall size of the Cabinet has increased to 12 to reflect the increasing impact of Brexit on Scottish Government business and to ensure direct Cabinet oversight of the operational delivery of the new social security system.’
IN the end, it is the hypocrisy of the SNP – the high-minded promises made supposedly in all sincerity only to be later abandoned for expediency – that really sticks in the public craw.
Take the pledges to run a leaner government. Whither that, now Nicola Sturgeon’s Cabinet rejig has been completed?
Her reshuffle means Scotland now has 11 Cabinet Secretaries and 14 ministers, as well as Miss Sturgeon herself, of course, costing £2.34million.
In addition, there are 14 ‘special advisers’ employed by the SNP Government, with the annual cost to the public purse set to soar towards £1million this year.
To add insult to injury, over-generous terms at Holyrood mean those who have been sacked – or as the SNP would have you believe, decided spontaneously and simultaneously to resign – also get money from the public purse
Three Cabinet Secretaries left government, including high-profile Shona Robison after a shambolic four-year reign at Health. With three ministers who also exited, they will be eligible for ‘resettlement’ grants worth 25 per cent of their ministerial salaries.
It is all a far cry from Alex Salmond’s claim that his team of five Cabinet Secretaries and ten junior ministers was ‘designed to deliver smaller and more effective government’.
No wonder money for frontline services is tight when more than 40 per cent of Nationalist MSPs are now part of an over-complex cat’s cradle of ministers.
It all begins to look like a glorious gravy train everyone in the SNP is rushing to board.
And why on earth is this bloated top team needed when, we are assured, Holyrood is fighting for its very survival in the face of an audacious Brexit power-grab by the Tories at Westminster?
The reality is that more powers are accruing to Holyrood yet many in the SNP do not want devolution to succeed, fearing it might further damage the moribund independence drive.
The public are paying a very high price for an expanding tribe of supposed top talent and they will want results, not another merry-go-round of duffers.