Eight-month poverty study to cost £100k
Taxpayers shell out for SNP project
NICOLA Sturgeon’s ‘poverty commission’ will cost taxpayers £100,000 for only eight months of work.
The eight-strong panel of experts has been asked to provide ‘independent advice’ to ministers.
A total of £12,500 a month will be spent on ‘salaries’ and funding support staff, admin and research for a chairman, his two deputies and five commissioners, figures reveal.
Recent minutes show the body has designed a logo and arranged contracts for ‘public relations support’ – and a dedicated website.
Last night there was concern over the high price tag for an organisation meant to be fighting poverty.
Scottish Tory equalities spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘The establishment of this commission was to hold the Scottish Government to account and ensure child poverty is reduced.
‘It is therefore very important that the Commission is well resourced – but not overpaid.
‘The Scottish Government must ensure its remit to tackle poverty comes first. Any excessive salaries will be judged to be detrimental to that mission.’
Chairman of the Poverty and Inequality Commission is Douglas Hamilton, former head of Save the Children in Scotland.
He has two deputies – Naomi Eisenstadt, the First Minister’s independent adviser on poverty and inequality since June 2015. The other deputy is Kaliani Lyle, ex-chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland and a board member of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
There are five commissioners – David Eiser, a research fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute; trade union activist Hugh
‘Detrimental to the mission’
Foy; charity volunteer Caroline Kennedy; Katie Schmuecker, head of policy at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; and Sally Witcher, boss of disability network Inclusion Scotland.
Government documents state the group ‘will have significant resources’ and ‘be supported by officials, including a lead policy official to act as a bridge between chair and ministers’.
A secretariat manager will ‘provide policy support’ and a lead analyst to ‘support the chair with analytical support’.
Other ‘analytical support’ will be provided as required, ‘with the ability to commission external work’. The Commission will have a ‘dedicated budget for commissioner salaries, travel, and engagement activity’.
Documents state: ‘To cover set-up costs for an eight-month period, the Commission has budget of £100,000.
‘A budget for subsequent years will be reviewed at the end of these eight months.’
The Scottish Government said it ‘will bear the core costs of the Secretariat to ensure the Commission operates efficiently’.
The Commission ‘will provide independent advice to ministers and have a scrutiny role in monitoring progress towards tackling poverty and inequality’.
It will also supply advice to inform the ‘delivery plan’ for the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill, to be published by April.
Asked about remuneration for members, a Scottish Government spokesman said chairmen ‘will receive a day rate as agreed with ministers’, but refused to disclose the rate.