Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many and what proportion of staff (a) of his Department and (b) working for companies contracted by his Department in Scotland are paid less than the living wage.

The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly. All staff that join the Office do so on an assignment, secondment or loan agreement from other Government bodies. All staff on such arrangements are paid more than the rate defined by the Living Wage Foundation.

The Scotland Office has one contract which provides security for the office in Edinburgh. The Scotland Office does not set the wages paid by the contractors to its workers; however, the wage paid by the contractor is above the national minimum wage. Otherwise the Office uses framework contracts for building services held by the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Government.