MSPs - Spending Public Money

The Herald reports that the Scottish Parliament is asking for a 16.9% increase in its budget including £5.8 million to cope with a 'surge' in MSP casework during the Covid crisis.

Now I haven't seen any evidence to back up this claim about workload, but the parliament is proposing an extra full-time member of staff for each MSP - a 38% increase in their staffing budget of £35,800 a year (from £93,900 to £129,700). 

The Herald reports that "some MSP offices" are currently seeing 15 to 20 new cases every day which seems rather flimsy evidence to justify such a big and permanent across the board increase in response to a temporary Covid crisis.   

So I think I'll submit a freedom of information (FoI) request to the Scottish Parliament, as it doesn't sound to me like great value for money, as far as the public purse is concerned. 



 

 

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