40 civil servants on over £100,000
As wages and jobs are decimated by pandemic...
DOZENS of Scotland’s ‘fat cat’ civil servants are pocketing taxpayer-funded pay packets of more than £100,000 a year – despite the pandemic putting unprecedented pressure on the country’s finances.
Almost 40 senior civil servants, including those in the First Minister’s special Indyref 2 constitution unit, receive six-figure salaries. In total, they cost the taxpayer almost £4 million.
Last night, Scottish Tory MSP Annie Wells said: ‘The nearly £4 million shelled out on these expensive officials is going to make the average Scottish taxpayer wince.
‘It shows yet again the SNP’s priorities are in the wrong place. It is pretty shocking so many of these civil servants are part of a constitution department. It has no real power and has been used by the SNP as a political plaything to cause trouble with the UK Government.
‘Small businesses facing a particularly difficult Christmas and New Year are going to be riled at these luxurious pay packets and I can’t blame them.’
Danielle Boxall, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Many will question if mandarins deserve these gold-plated salaries. All too often we see civil servants underperform at taxpayers’ expense.
‘Given the current economic circumstances, the Scottish Government must try everything possible to cut its wage bill.’
Figures obtained using Freedom of Information laws show 38 Scottish Government civil servants took home more than £100,000 last year. Seven
‘Yet again SNP’s priorities are in the wrong place’
are part of the Constitution and External Affairs department, charged with producing blueprints for future independence referendums.
The department with the most employees earning salaries of £100,000 or more is the Economy team, where ten staff receive the huge pay packets.
Eight work in Organisational Development and Operations, with 11 working across the Education, Health and Finance portfolios.
The remaining two high earners are Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans, who was responsible for carrying out the Scottish Government’s botched probe into complaints against Alex Salmond, and the First Minister’s Chief of Staff, Liz Lloyd.
In October, this newspaper told how Ms Sturgeon’s team of 14 spin doctors cost more than £1 million last year. One special adviser was handed a pay rise of up to £20,000 and is now paid more than three times the salary of an average Scot.
It is understood that the bumper boost – which at its minimum meant a pay-scale jump of more than £3,000, and at its maximum a rise of more than £20,000 – went to Ms Lloyd.
A spokesman for Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said: ‘This is the height of hypocrisy, even by the Tories’ standards – there are hundreds of civil servants in UK Government departments who earn more than £150,000 a year.
‘But what this really shows is that the Scottish Tories, by attacking hardworking and dedicated civil servants, have zero expectation of being in government and working with them any time soon.’