Finance and Local Government – in the Scottish Parliament at on 3 September 2025.
Alexander Stewart
Conservative
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it is reportedly spending over £1 million every week on agency staff, in light of its having announced plans to reduce corporate costs. (S6O-04881)
Ivan McKee
Scottish National Party
In support of the budget and the wider public service reform agenda, the Scottish Government is proactively addressing the need to control workforce size to remain fiscally sustainable. Within the core Scottish Government, the number of contingent workers is now 47 per cent lower than in March 2022.
The use of contingent workers has been in decline in order to support a more managed approach to workforce deployment and to reduce cost. Employing temporary and agency workers provides the flexibility that is required to meet business needs, access specialist and other skills quickly and adapt where a need for a resource is short term. When services might be required for only a short time, it is very often the most cost-effective way of providing them, rather than employing someone full time.
Alexander Stewart
Conservative
Does the Minister accept that every pound that is spent on agency staff bureaucracy is a pound that is taken away from our schools, hospitals and local council services, which are already on their knees because of this Government’s mismanagement?
Ivan McKee
Scottish National Party
Alexander Stewart will be aware that the Scottish Government works within a fixed budget and balances its budget every year. The whole point of the public service reform agenda is to continue to move resources from the corporate functions and to deploy them to the front line in exactly the way that he has talked about. The strategy contains a number of examples of ways in which we have successfully done that. I have just cited the example of the number of contingent workers, which is 47 per cent lower than it was three years ago. We will continue to deliver on that agenda in order to free up those resources and ensure that they are deployed effectively in an integrated way on the front line.
Annabelle Ewing
Scottish National Party
That concludes portfolio questions on finance and local government. There will be a short pause before we move on to the next item of business.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
