Outrage as suspended civil servant pockets £70k

A SCOTTISH Government civil servant was paid £70,000 for “doing nothing” while suspended on full pay for two years and three months.

- By David Walker Scottish Politics Reporter

SNP Ministers have already been urged to cut back on the bloated public sector, which reached a record level last year. There were around 590,000 public sector workers in Scotland in 2024, representing 22% of the workforce, considerably higher than in England, with 17%.

It has led to difficulties in funding as the UK Government provides this to correspond to population. Repeated SNP Ministers have claimed they will reduce the headcount but have so far failed, even adding more full-time employees by cutting back on agency staff and part-timers.

The latest figures showed the full-time equivalent of 8,843 directly employed staff worked at the Scottish Government at the end of March.