Claims by the Scottish Government that more than 6,000 United Kingdom Public Service jobs had been cut in Scotland since 2011 were described as “misleading” by Westminster.
In a statement, the Cabinet Office said the numbers failed to take into account roles that were transferred between the UK and Scottish Governments.
The Public Service headcount was at a high of around 490,000 when the Coalition Government came to power at Westminster in 2010.
It embarked on a program of staff reduction that was only turned around by the dual pressures of the exit from the European Union (Brexit) and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full-time-equivalent headcount in the UK Public Service was just under 453,000 at the end of March 2021, according to official statistics.
The Scottish National Party (SNP), which leads the Government in Edinburgh, said 6,310 UK Public Service jobs were axed in Scotland between 2011 and 2021, amounting to around a fifth of the workforce.
Over the same timeframe, the Scottish Government’s headcount had increased by 5,070.
The party’s Deputy Leader in the Westminster Parliament, Kirsten Oswald, said the figures showed the Scottish Government had safeguarded Public Service jobs whilst Westminster “slashed Scottish Public Service jobs left, right and centre, exposing precisely where their priorities lie”.
The UK Government said the number of Public Servants based in Scotland, including those working for the Scottish Government and its Agencies, fell by 2.5 per cent between 2011 and 2021, compared with a fall of 2.7 per cent in public sector employment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over the same period.
It said a number of officials from the UK Public Service had transferred to the Scottish Government over the past decade to fulfil similar roles.
“In certain reserved Departments, some jobs have been transferred to the Scottish Government and it is misleading to suggest these have been cut,” a spokesperson said.
Edinburgh, 9 January 2022
