Cabinet wage bill rising despite pay freeze

In today's meeting of the finance committee, Scottish Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone has questioned the startling rise in the budget for MSP pay despite the apparent pay freeze.

The draft budget shows a £171,000 increase in this area and when member of the SPCB Liam McArthur was asked to explain this rise he attributed it to the increasing number of people in the Cabinet.

Speaking after the committee, Alex Johnstone MSP said:

"MSPs are in the middle of a two year freeze, with Ministerial pay now frozen for three years, so people will rightly start asking why the budget for MSP's pay shows such a large increase. That the rise is entirely caused by Alex Salmond's decision to expand the size of his Cabinet will be seen by many as unacceptable.

"It is vital that we provide value for money to the taxpayer and by needlessly adding more personnel to his team Alex Salmond is totally failing to do this. Many people will be annoyed that the wage bill is still rising despite cuts elsewhere and any further increase will probably be met with yet more anger.

"Thanks to these increases we are all now paying the price for this bloated Government."

The approved budget for 2011-12 showed that £10,950,000 was allocated for MSPs pay, yet the budget bid for 2012-13 is £11,121,000.

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