Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what was the total expenditure on press and communications, including staffing costs, for financial year 2024/5, and for 2026 for the office of the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The total expenditure on press and communications, including staffing costs, for financial year 2024/25 was £1.944m.
Departmental spend on communications staff for financial year 2024-25 was £1.744m, including all on-costs such as pension contributions, national insurance and VAT.
The total Communications budget for the financial year 2025-26 is £1.949m.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what was the expenditure on paid-for social media advertising and promotion, such as on Facebook and X for financial year 2024/5 and the budget for 2026 for the office of the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
In the financial year 2024-25, the total amount spent on social media advertising and promotion was £2,806.
The social media marketing budget for the financial year 2025-26 was £10,000.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what was the expenditure on advertising for financial year 2024/5 and what is the budget for 2026 for the office of the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Department has spent the following on advertising:
Financial Year | Advertising £’000 |
2024-25 | 50, 277.07 |
Please note, budgets for financial year 2026-27 will be agreed at the beginning of the next financial year.
Asked by: Graham Leadbitter (Scottish National Party - Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether Ministers receive guidance on referring to devolved issues in the Chamber.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
Ministers are supported by officials to participate in proceedings in accordance with the established practices of the House of Commons.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, (a) how many policy staff job posts there are in his Department and (b) what the salary band is for each post.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Scotland Office has 30 policy posts which are spread across the following salary bands:
Salary Band | Number of Posts |
SCS1 | 2 |
Grade 6 | 3 |
Grade 7 | 7 |
Senior Executive Officer | 9 |
Higher Executive Officer | 9 |
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote the National Year of Reading in Scotland.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National Year of Reading is a UK-wide campaign to address the steep decline in reading enjoyment amongst children, young people and adults. For example, only last month our delivery partner for this campaign, the National Literacy Trust, revealed that fewer than 1 in 10 teenage boys read daily for pleasure.
The National Year of Reading aims to engage new audiences, reshape public attitudes and embed lasting, meaningful change on attitudes to reading. It includes a major marketing campaign as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout 2026.
Let me emphasise that this is a UK-wide campaign, and we are working in collaboration with the Scottish Government and DC Thomson, The Scottish Book Trust and The Scottish Book and Information Council to deliver this important initiative in Scotland.
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, published on 2 June 2025, how many (a) public engagements and (b) private meetings Ministers in their Department have undertaken related to the national conversation on defence and security.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Secretary of State for Scotland has regular discussions with officials, external experts and ministerial colleagues on a range of issues, including national security, defence and resilience, and associated public communications.
As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, the national conversation will be a multi-year engagement designed to embed a whole-of-society approach, where Government, businesses, and the public all play a part in strengthening our resilience. This addresses the risks we face, including threats below and above the threshold of an armed attack.
The Scotland Office is actively supporting this work, including working closely with the Ministry of Defence on the development of a Defence Growth Deal in Scotland, alongside wider engagements with industry, local authorities and academia to support jobs, investment, and skills development in Scotland’s defence sector. The Secretary of State for Scotland also met with key trade partners as part of a defence-focused visit to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many directors with responsibility for human resources are employed across their department and its executive agencies; and how many of those directors hold professional HR qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or equivalent professional bodies.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
The Scotland Office has no Directors with responsibility for human resources.
It may be helpful to explain that the Scotland Office does not employ any staff directly. All staff that join, do so on an assignment, loan or secondment from other government departments, principally the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Government. They remain the employers and provide HR services to their employees working in the Scotland Office.
Estimate memoranda Feb. 26 2026
Committee: Scottish Affairs Committee (Department: Scotland Office)Estimate memoranda Feb. 26 2026
Committee: Scottish Affairs Committee (Department: Scotland Office)