SNP plans to cut £1bn from Scotland's huge public sector
The SNP has unveiled pans to cut £1 billion from Scotland's huge public sector after admitting there was 'unnecessary duplication' in the system.
Ivan McKee, the public finance minister, said state spending on 'corporate functions' would be cut by 20 per cent over the next five years.
In a statement at Holyrood, he admitted that 'public satisfaction with services has fallen' in Scotland despite record funding from Westminster and higher taxes.
Mr McKee unveiled a 49-page 'reform strategy' that said there was 'unnecessary and unhelpful duplication in the system, including multiple providers of similar services'.
It pledged to 'remove, amalgamate or change the number of public bodies where doing so will increase efficiency, remove duplication and improve service delivery'.
However, the blueprint did not state which Scottish government agencies or quangos would face cuts, or the number of civil service jobs that would go.
The Scottish Tories said he had produced a 'wish list of word soup that fails to mention waste once' and attacked the 'astonishing lack of detail'.
Craig Hoy, their shadow finance secretary, said: 'It begs the question as to why the SNP have not thought to make these savings at any point over their 18 years in power while they have been wasting taxpayers' money on a colossal scale.'
Around 600,000 people are employed in Scotland's public sector, making up 22 per cent of the total workforce, compared to about 18 per cent in the UK as a whole. They are also paid £1,500 on average per year more north of the Border.
The public sector pay bill has also swollen to £25 billion, more than half the SNP Government's money for day-to-day spending on public services.
Earlier this year, Scotland's Information Commissioner said he was 'astonished' at the 'sheer number of public bodies' in Scotland. David Hamilton said there were thousands 'and I keep finding new ones'.
He also disclosed that he played 'public authority bingo' with the auditor general, where they ask: 'Have you heard of this one? Have you heard of that one?' about quangos.
Mr McKee told MSPs that the £1 billion cost cuts by 2029-30 'will require every part of the public sector to reduce the cost of doing business to prioritise the front line'.
He said: 'All public bodies are already required to deliver best value, but this is about going further, and faster.
'It is about taking all available opportunities to introduce and embed efficiency through automation, digitisation, estate rationalisation, and changing the delivery landscape.'
Pressed by Mr Hoy to specify what cuts would be made, he said: 'Just swinging a big axe isn't going to deliver services. We've seen that across the Atlantic, where Elon Musk, who's no longer with the Trump administration precisely because he went in with a big axe and started cutting stuff and it immediately backfired because he didn't know what he was doing.'
Mr Hoy said: 'There is still an astonishing lack of detail as to where these savings will be made, or what quangos will be axed.
'The public simply will not trust the SNP to suddenly tackle the enormous waste they have presided over.'
The strategy promised to save 'hundreds of millions' of pounds with 'efficiencies' over the next five years and to cut duplication by 'better joining up services.'
It also committed to a greater focus on 'prevention' to 'avoid spending billions trying to address economic and social problems caused by issues like poor health'.
But Roz Foyer, general secretary of the STUC, said: 'Whenever government ministers speak of public sector 'efficiencies', workers anxiously hold their breath.
'These cuts, pre-packed as reforms, miss the mark entirely. Simply put: you can't fix public services by cutting the very people who keep them running.'
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