Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much was paid in (a) year-end and (b) in-year bonuses to officials of his Department in each of the last three years.

David Mundell

All staff in the Scotland Office are on assignment, secondment or loan from other Government bodies, in the majority of cases, the Scottish Government and the Ministry of Justice. Staff may be eligible for bonuses, in addition to basic salary, through their parent bodies’ pay arrangements.

The Scotland Office does not keep records of year-end performance payments or allowances to staff below Senior Civil Service level. These records are kept under staffs’ parent bodies’ pay arrangements. Scotland Office Senior Civil Service performance awards are agreed within a common framework set by the Cabinet Office and are published in the Scotland Office Annual Report and Accounts.

The Scotland Office is able to authorise directly non-consolidated and non-pensionable bonus payments in recognition of special effort, achievement and commitment, where the payment of such bonuses forms part of the individual member of staff’s terms and conditions. The current bonus arrangements do not apply to staff on assignment from the Scottish Government.

The following information shows the cost of such payments in the last three financial years: