Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what the average staffing complement is for a ministerial private office within their Department; what grades those staff are appointed at; what the typical remuneration and contracted working hours are for those posts; and what the staff turnover rate is.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
Private Office in the Scotland Office has an average staffing complement of 12 staff and serves 2 Ministers, appointed from EO to Grade 6. Typical contracted hours for these posts are 37 hours a week, with additional private office allowance paid to qualifying staff for regular out of hours work.
AA | 0 |
AO | 0 |
EO | 3 |
HEO | 4 |
SEO | 3 |
G7 | 1 |
G6 | 1 |
| London | National | ||
| 2025/2026 pay range minima | 2025/2026 pay range maxima | 2025/2026 pay range minima | 2025/2026 pay range maxima |
AA | £26,618 | £25,012 | ||
AO | £30,109 | £25,582 | ||
EO | £33,551 | £35,564 | £29,303 | £31,061 |
HEO | £40,014 | £42,859 | £35,335 | £37,847 |
SEO | £49,325 | £53,081 | £42,914 | £46,182 |
G7 | £63,343 | £70,725 | £58,511 | £65,329 |
G6 | £75,674 | £85,257 | £71,381 | £80,419 |
In the last 12 months, there has been a turnover rate of 50% in Private Office.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many apprentices his Department recruited in 2025, compared to i) 2022 ii) 2023 and iii) 2024.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Scotland Office has not recruited any apprentices in the requested timeframe.
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across the civil service to break down barriers to opportunity. The Scotland Office considers the use of apprenticeships for all relevant recruitment campaigns.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of increased defence industrial collaboration with Ukraine on Scotland's economy.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Defence Industrial Collaboration underscores our continued commitment to supporting Ukraine and strengthening long-term security in Europe. This strategic partnership offers significant opportunities for UK-Ukraine cooperation, and Scotland is well placed to both contribute to the effort and benefit from this collaboration, leveraging its strengths in defence, advanced manufacturing, digital technology, and the space sectors.
This collaboration will help to advance joint production and integration of UK funding for new R&D. Crucially, this will support Ukraine's resilience while simultaneously sustaining skilled jobs and investment across the Scottish supply chain.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department has spent on special severance payments in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The total value of severance payments is set out in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts, which are available for the last three years.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what evidence his Department submitted to the Office for National Statistics' review of the ethnicity harmonised standard, including in relation to the recording of Sikhs and Jewish people as ethnic groups.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly. All staff that join do so on an assignment, loan or secondment for other Government departments, who remain the employers.
As information relating to the demographics of staff is held by the employing departments, the Scotland Office is not able to provide evidence into the review of the ethnicity harmonised standard.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many staff within his Department are reliant on a visa for employment.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Scotland Office has the information that you have requested. However, if a request is made for information and the total figure amounts to five people or fewer, the Scotland Office must consider whether this could lead to the identification of individuals and whether disclosure of this information would be in breach of our statutory obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation and/or the Data Protection Act 2018.
We believe that the release of this information would risk identification of the individual/s concerned. For this reason, the Scotland Office has chosen not to provide the information requested. However, it should not be assumed that the actual figure represented falls at any particular point within this scale; 'five or fewer' is used as a replacement value from which it would be difficult to isolate or extract any individual data.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, with reference to page 92 of the Strategic Defence Review, how many meetings officials from their Department have attended on the national conversation on defence and security; which directorate in their Department is responsible for the departmental contribution to that national conversation; and what the job title is of the official responsible.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The conversation on National Defence was a recommendation in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which the Government accepted. The MOD is the lead department for delivering the SDR, with support from the Cabinet Office, and particularly from the National Security Secretariat.
This will be a multi-year, cross-departmental effort designed to deliver on the whole-of-society approach to national security and defence allowing Government, the private sector and public to play their part in strengthening the UK’s resilience to any potential future shocks. This work addresses the risks and threats the UK faces, including those below and above the threshold of an armed attack.
The Scotland Office is actively supporting this by working closely with the MOD, as well as on the development of a Defence Growth Deal in Scotland and wider engagement with industry, local authorities and academia to support jobs, investment, and skills development in Scotland’s defence sector.
Asked by: Katrina Murray (Labour - Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on financial support for listed places of worship in Scotland unable to access the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
Whilst heritage policy is a devolved matter, we recognise the importance of places of worship to Scotland’s communities. Scotland Office Ministers have had a number of discussions with Scottish Government Ministers covering a range of topics. Additionally, Ministers from both Scotland Office and Department for Culture, Media & Sport Ministers are due to discuss this matter with officials from the Church of Scotland in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, with reference to paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic approach to how we will strengthen our domestic resilience and invest to protect the nation. Scotland Office officials regularly attend meetings to discuss the implementation of the Resilience Action Plan as well as matters of national security and defence.
The Scotland Office is actively contributing to this work and is working closely with other UK Government Departments to ensure effective delivery in Scotland, as well as coordination with the Scottish Government where responsibilities for resilience are devolved.
Asked by: Lord Cameron of Lochiel (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Scottish Government has requested that agricultural and fisheries funding not be ringfenced and therefore subject to the Barnett Formula from 2024–25 onwards; and if so, whether they will publish any details relating to this request.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Cluny - Advocate General for Scotland
Agriculture and fisheries funding was added to the Scottish Government’s baseline funding from 2025-26. The funding is no longer ringfenced. The application of the Barnett formula and removal of the ringfence is in line with the Fiscal Framework agreed by both the UK and Scottish Governments. This decision respects the key principle of devolution, granting the Scottish Government full flexibility to determine its spending priorities.
The Scottish Government has received the biggest settlement in the history of devolution and can provide additional funding on this devolved issue if it so chooses.