SCOTLAND OFFICE BUDGET SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL

SCOTLAND OFFICE BUDGET SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL

DEPARTMENT NEITHER USE NOR ORNAMENT COSTS £9M

SNP Shadow Scotland Office Spokesperson Angus MacNeil MP has seized on
reports that the UK Labour Government has spent £1.4m refurbishing
Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy’s Scotland Office at Dover House, and at the
same time given his department a £1.2m cash boost this year, as reported
in the Sunday Express. The Scotland Office’s own budget estimates reveals
that the annual budget of the department will now cost taxpayers £8.7m in
2010 - £1.2 million up on the previous figure.

The total budget of the Scotland Office is now well over double what is
was in 1999 when it stood at £3.7m despite a massively reduced remit
following devolution. The post of Secretary of State for Scotland was
reduced to a part time role after devolution but Prime Minister Gordon
Brown restored it to full time in October 2008.

Following these latest revelations, Mr MacNeil said he would table a
series of question to establish exactly what the cash had been spent on
and if best value had been achieved.

Commenting, Mr MacNeil said:

"Since devolution the remit of the Scotland Office has shrunk but its
budget has spiralled out of control. It’s time the department was scrapped
altogether

“Jim Murphy’s hypocrisy knows no bounds – while he lectures everyone else
about belt tightening, he is splashing the cash on his own department
which is of neither use nor ornament for the people of Scotland.

“Dover House is nothing more than a Ministry for anti-Scottish propaganda
and I don’t think it will sit well with ordinary Scots that Jim Murphy is
making this cash grab while the UK Labour Government are slashing the
Scottish Government’s budget for investment in vital public services.”