Scotsman: MSP expenses outstrip rate of inflation to top £10m

by Louise Gray

MSPS received more than £10 million in expenses and allowances last year.

Politicians received a total of £10.3 million, some £492,000 more than the previous year or a rise of just over 5 per cent.

The bulk of the expenses go towards staff costs but this is not broken down, to protect the privacy of the individuals. The rest of the £3.58 million spent by MSPs on accommodation, travel and other costs can be shown to the public in a league table.

At the top of the table were the four former Scottish Socialist Party MSPs: Frances Curran spent £70,003; Carolyn Leckie £68,358; Rosie Kane £60,995; and Colin Fox £60,197.

The SSP is the only party to include staff costs in its expenses as members pool the money in order to share staff.

Next on the table were MSPs who live in far-off constituencies. Alasdair Morrison from the Western Isles spent £53,888; John Farqhuar Munro from Skye £48,738; and Jamie Stone from Caithness £47,049.

Mr Stone, the Liberal Democrat MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, and one of the few in the top ten who still has a place in the Scottish Parliament, was unapologetic about his expenses.

"I represent one of the biggest constituencies furthest away from Edinburgh. I do a huge amount of travelling in my work for the constituency and that is why my expenses are high; they have been in the past and will be in the future."

At the bottom of the list, excluding Margaret Ewing whose death brought about office winding-up costs, came Mark Ballard, who lost his seat as a Green MSP for the Lothians region. He spent £1,776.

Second from bottom was the Conservative Mary Scanlon, who stood down as a list MSP to fight, unsuccessfully, the Moray seat made vacant by the death of Mrs Ewing. She received £1,849.

Third from bottom, at £1,970, came the Greens' Robin Harper, one of only two Green MSPs to return to Holyrood after the May election. Mr Harper, the Green MSP for the Lothians, said:

"I do try to set a good example. I take the bus and walk.

"It is not because I am lazy [to claim so little]. I have plenty of commitments outside the parliament, but I try to use the bus or the train. If I do use a taxi, it is because public transport is time-barred."

By category, one of the areas MSPs spent the most money on was the Edinburgh accommodation allowance, at more than £500,000. The scheme has attracted adverse publicity because it allows MSPs to purchase properties in the capital with interest-only mortgages paid for by taxpayers. They are later allowed to sell the properties at a profit - which they can then pocket.

MSPs spent £529,650.93 on their own travel, £79,166.42 on staff travel and £11,244.39 on travel for family.

Despite the Scottish Government's emphasis on public transport, just £1,221 was spent on bus travel and £216 on bus season tickets, while MSPs spent £39,764 on taxis and £423,474 on mileage.

More than £40,000 was spent on childcare vouchers - and there was £6,311 of "security- related expenditure".

The books put on expenses revealed an insight into the research of some of the MSPs. Jim Mather, the enterprise minister spent money on Statistics for Dummies and Statistical Analysis and Excel for Dummies, Six Sigma Workshop for Dummies, while Wendy Alexander, the leader of the Labour Party, spent £20 on a book called Has Devolution Delivered?

Of the staff costs, which make up the bulk of the £10.3 million total, just over £80,000 less was spent this year than last year at £6.411 million.

A spokesman for the Taxpayers Alliance said the year-on-year increase in allowances must stop. He said: "MSPs should hang their heads in shame over the above-inflation rise, which has pushed their expenses to over £10 million a year.

"With council tax rising and the overall tax burden on the increase, MSPs should be looking for ways to cut their expenses to provide people with some much-needed tax relief.

"All politicians are the same: they bicker over policy but sing in unison when it comes to their perks, despite the fact that it comes directly out of the pockets of their constituents."

However, officials argued that the increase was broadly in line with inflation.

In the past year the retail price index, which shows the increase in the average price of goods, has gone up 3 per cent. An alternative measure, the consumer price index, rose by an average of 2.7 per cent in the same period.