Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, (a) what fee was originally agreed with Fullbrook Strategies for the secondment of the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Mark Fullbrook and (b) whether this amount was greater than the equivalent highest recommended Cabinet Office pay band for UK Government Special Advisors.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Mr Fullbrook is not employed by the Government under a secondment agreement, therefore I can confirm that no such agreement exists.
Mr Fullbrook is employed directly by the Government under the Model Contract for Special Advisers, which sets out the terms of employment for special advisers, including provision for severance payments. Together with the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers and the Civil Service Code, this constitutes a special adviser’s contract of employment with the Crown.
As required by legislation, Special Adviser costs and salaries are routinely published on GOV.UK by the Cabinet Office. The next annual publication is due in 2023.
All special adviser salaries are set within the pay ranges specified in this report.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the salary agreed with the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Mark Fullbrook following his recent direct employment by the Government on a Special Adviser contract is within the current recommended Cabinet Office pay bands for UK Government Special Advisors.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Mr Fullbrook is not employed by the Government under a secondment agreement, therefore I can confirm that no such agreement exists.
Mr Fullbrook is employed directly by the Government under the Model Contract for Special Advisers, which sets out the terms of employment for special advisers, including provision for severance payments. Together with the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers and the Civil Service Code, this constitutes a special adviser’s contract of employment with the Crown.
As required by legislation, Special Adviser costs and salaries are routinely published on GOV.UK by the Cabinet Office. The next annual publication is due in 2023.
All special adviser salaries are set within the pay ranges specified in this report.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total operating cost was for all British overseas military bases, without personnel costs included, in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by James Heappey
The operating costs for British overseas military bases, without personnel costs are detailed below:
Financial Year | 2020-21 million | 2019-20 million | 2018-19 million |
Total | 171.710 | 169.431 | 157.920 |
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many officials in their Department are working on Retained EU Law legislation.
Answered by Dean Russell
The Department is supporting the Government’s review into retained EU Law, which provides an authoritative assessment of where retained EU law is concentrated on the statute book and assists the consideration of future legislative requirements.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy currently has approximately 53 FTE officials working on Retained EU Law (as of 9 September 2022).
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the underspend in each financial year in the total budget of Departments was as a percentage of the total Government budget; and what the equivalent figures are for the Scottish DEL for each year for which figures are available since 2010.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Analysis of DEL underspends since 2010 are provided below for total central government (departments and devolved administrations) and for the Scottish government only. Note that these underspends represent the funding that departments return to the Exchequer after accounting for carry forward under Budget Exchange rules (as departmental Budget Exchange carry forward is processed at Supplementary Estimates based on forecasts), whereas the figures for the Scottish Government are before carry forward as this is processed for the devolved administrations using outturn information. The figures are not therefore directly comparable.
Data for this analysis are taken from recent editions of the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) command paper using tables in chapter three.
*RDEL | CDEL | ||||
| Total Government Underspend as % final provision | Scottish Government underspend as % final provision | Total Government Underspend as % final provision | Scottish Government underspend as % final provision | |
2010-11 | -1.1% | -0.4% | -2.4% | -0.1% | |
2011-12 | -1.7% | -0.5% | -3.8% | -1.1% | |
2012-13 | -1.6% | -0.6% | -4.4% | -1.0% | |
2013-14 | -0.7% | -0.6% | -2.5% | -1.1% | |
2014-15 | -0.6% | -0.6% | -5.5% | -10.1% | |
2015-16 | -0.3% | -0.3% | -3.2% | -2.5% | |
2016-17 | -0.8% | -0.5% | -3.8% | -2.8% | |
2017-18 | -0.8% | -2.1% | -4.6% | -0.2% | |
2018-19 | -0.9% | -2.1% | -4.3% | -3.5% | |
2019-20 | 0.3% | -1.3% | -3.2% | -2.4% | |
2020-21 | -5.1% | -0.9% | -6.4% | -4.1% | |
2021-22 | -2.9% | -1.9% | -5.6% | -7.5% | |
*For 2010-11 and 2011-12 figures presented are RDEL. From 2012-13 onwards | |||||
presented as RDEL excluding depreciation. | |||||
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were employed by her Department at each civil service grade in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK in the financial years (i) 2018-19, (ii) 2019-20 and (iii) 2020–21; and what the average salary at each civil service grade was for those employed (a) full-time and (b) part-time in each of those regions for each of those years.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
All staff in UK | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | |||
Headcount | Average Salary | Headcount | Average Salary | Headcount | Average Salary | |
Full time | 54,526 | £25,025 | 50,558 | £26,051 | 62,467 | £28,537 |
A/AA | 211 | £18,245 | 201 | £19,080 | 146 | £20,410 |
B/AO | 18,520 | £18,328 | 16,480 | £18,532 | 17,518 | £21,330 |
C/EO | 25,113 | £25,278 | 23,484 | £26,110 | 33,962 | £28,266 |
D/HEO | 5,905 | £30,045 | 5,499 | £31,028 | 5,630 | £33,576 |
E/SEO | 2,302 | £33,662 | 2,287 | £35,290 | 2,457 | £37,894 |
F/G7 | 1,604 | £47,105 | 1,687 | £48,954 | 1,791 | £52,760 |
G/G6 | 649 | £58,652 | 703 | £61,384 | 727 | £66,323 |
SCS | 222 | £80,599 | 217 | £81,203 | 236 | £89,722 |
Part time | 35,784 | £32,771 | 35,921 | £33,844 | 34,897 | £36,970 |
A/AA | 244 | £26,871 | 240 | £28,100 | 170 | £30,440 |
B/AO | 16,359 | £27,581 | 15,980 | £28,214 | 14,216 | £30,968 |
C/EO | 16,181 | £35,464 | 16,574 | £36,469 | 17,396 | £39,032 |
D/HEO | 1,980 | £39,156 | 2,014 | £40,812 | 2,003 | £44,113 |
E/SEO | 567 | £44,484 | 613 | £46,301 | 607 | £51,364 |
F/G7 | 319 | £64,208 | 342 | £66,089 | 351 | £71,790 |
G/G6 | 106 | £82,589 | 131 | £83,253 | 124 | £89,786 |
SCS | 28 | £83,883 | 27 | £106,740 | 30 | £108,552 |
Total | 90,310 | £27,479 | 86,479 | £28,651 | 97,364 | £30,912 |
Scotland Staff | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | |||
Headcount | Average Salary | Headcount | Average Salary | Headcount | Average Salary | |
Full time | 5,874 | £22,299 | 5,292 | £23,098 | 5,730 | £25,703 |
A/AA | 10 | £18,592 | 9 | £19,435 | 8 | £20,147 |
B/AO | 2,594 | £17,935 | 2,297 | £18,332 | 2,212 | £20,859 |
C/EO | 2,631 | £24,473 | 2,404 | £25,378 | 2,953 | £27,489 |
D/HEO | 469 | £28,911 | 426 | £29,655 | 410 | £32,641 |
E/SEO | 105 | £29,454 | 97 | £34,232 | 91 | £36,521 |
F/G7 | 46 | £43,301 | 40 | £47,130 | 41 | £49,725 |
G/G6 | 13 | £59,237 | 14 | £47,667 | 10 | £61,966 |
SCS | 6 | £78,900 | 5 | £87,429 | 5 | £87,279 |
Part time | 3,881 | £31,038 | 3,887 | £31,857 | 3,654 | £35,132 |
A/AA | 13 | £25,326 | 13 | £24,757 | 10 | £27,150 |
B/AO | 2,017 | £26,535 | 1,989 | £27,231 | 1,799 | £30,116 |
C/EO | 1,666 | £35,144 | 1,701 | £35,744 | 1,675 | £39,027 |
D/HEO | 149 | £39,041 | 143 | £42,450 | 133 | £46,753 |
E/SEO | 25 | £45,948 | 30 | £47,495 | 29 | £51,937 |
F/G7 | 8 | £68,956 | 9 | £65,451 | 6 | £75,359 |
G/G6 | 3 | £63,353 | 2 | £85,743 | 2 | £87,887 |
Total | 9,755 | £25,064 | 9,179 | £26,070 | 9,384 | £28,594 |
Staffing figure includes all staff during each year, both Paid & unpaid, and all leavers.
Full time staff are all those with an FTE of 1.0, Part time staff are all those with less than 1.0 FTE.
The average salaries are derived from the actual salaries held.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much was spent by his Department on research contracts in each region in the most recent financial year for which figures are available.
Answered by Alec Shelbrooke
A full breakdown of spend on research contracts by region is not centrally held and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. However, I am able to provide details of payments for financial year 2021-22 to suppliers for research contracted out to industry and academia by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. It should be noted that the regional analysis is based on office or billing address only and some of the work will have been subcontracted by the supplier.
Payments £ (to the nearest thousand) | |
Northern Ireland | 290,000 |
Scotland | 5,744,000 |
North East England | 972,000 |
North West England | 5,549,000 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 2,959,000 |
East Midlands | 4,455,000 |
West Midlands | 8,188,000 |
East of England | 41,501,000 |
London | 14,516,000 |
South East | 164,209,000 |
South West | 38,520,000 |
Wales | 6,721,000 |
Total | 293,624,000 |
Rest of World | 9,857,000 |
Total 303,481,000 |
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many official representations abroad ministers in his Department made in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2021-2022; in which countries those representations took place; in what capacity those representations were undertaken; and what the cost to the public purse was of each of those representations.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
In the financial year 2018-19, Ministers made five official representations abroad in their ministerial capacity. These representations were to Iceland, the United States of America, New Zealand, Uruguay and Chile. The cost of these was £17,807.66.
In the financial year 2019-20, Ministers made one official representation abroad in their ministerial capacity. This representation was to Hungary. The cost of this was £240.68.
In the financial year 2021-22, Ministers made three official representations abroad in their ministerial capacity. These representations were to India, Finland and Norway. The cost of these was £2,383.93.
Further details on the purpose and details of these visits are available in the Ministerial transparency returns, which are published on https://www.gov.uk/search/transparency-and-freedom-of-information-releases?organisations%5B%5D=office-of-the-secretary-of-state-for-scotland&parent=office-of-the-secretary-of-state-for-scotland.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what estimate he has made of the (a) staffing levels and (b) running costs of his Department in (i) 2022–23 and (ii) 2023–24.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Spending Review Settlement agreed with HM Treasury voted the Scotland Office and Office of the Advocate General a Resource DEL provision (excluding depreciation) of £13.4m for 2022-23 and £13.7m for 2023-24. This calculation was based on a staffing structure across both offices of 137 in 2022-23 and 135 in 2023-24.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many official trade representations abroad did ministers from his Department make in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019–20 and (c) 2021–2022; and in which countries those representations took place.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland visited Uruguay and Chile on an official trade representation in September 2018.
Across the financial years 2018-19, 2019–20 and 2021–2022, Ministers from the Scotland Office visited Iceland, the United States of America, New Zealand, India, Finland and Norway to promote trade with Scotland.
Further details on the purpose and details of these visits are available in the Ministerial transparency returns, which are published on: