Taxpayers foot bill of £45,000 per year for every Holyrood worker

David Maddox - 15 January 2010

The Scottish Parliament is facing calls to scrutinise more closely its own running costs after it emerged staff cost more than £45,000 each.

The wage bill figures were part of the £72 million spent on running Holyrood last year and have led to questions over whether parliamentary authorities are playing their part in helping Scotland save money during the recession.

The cost per member of staff is 60 per cent above the wage of the average working Scot of £28,000 a year.

According to the parliamentary authorities, around £23m was spent on wage and pensions for the 506 staff employed during 2008/09. A further £1.7m was used to pay redundancy packages.

The issue of the number of staff in the Scottish Parliament and the workload in some departments has been an underlying concern for some time.

In particular, questions have been asked about why the parliament needs nine press officers with a recently advertised middle-grade position there commanding a salary of up to £45,844.

The issue led to a clash at First Minister's Questions between Conservative leader Annabel Goldie and the Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson.

Mr Fergusson ruled Ms Goldie's question on parliamentary running costs out of order because it was not the responsibility of the Scottish Government.

Afterwards, Ms Goldie claimed the time had come for the Scottish Parliament to make savings.

"Looking at these costs, it is obvious that we are going to have to sort out the essential from the non-essential," she said.

"The Scottish Parliament must set an example of good housekeeping and that means cutting the costs of running it. While that responsibility in the first instance rests with parliamentary officials and the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB], all parties have a duty to support that process."

She appeared to receive support from the First Minister. Alex Salmond said: "All levels of government need to be aware of the extreme public spending situation that's coming down the line."

His spokesman later added: "The First Minister indicated there's a role right across the public sector to practise restraint. Government has a leadership role to play, but politicians more generally have got a leadership role to play."

A spokesman for the Scottish Parliament insisted that it was trying to bring costs down. He said the number of posts in the parliament had been cut from 547 to 528 since 2008/09.

He added: "The Scottish Parliament is continuing to reduce its budget year on year in real terms and look for savings.

"Last year, through its robust approach, the SPCB was able to ensure £1.5m was returned."

See also:
Costs of maintaining Holyrood rise by 40%
Taxpayers face £800000 bill for parliament website revamp
Holyrood cash props up Mugabe