THE cost of the Scottish government’s ministerial offices has almost doubled since 2007, new analysis has found.

Scottish Labour, which released the analysis today, said the spiralling bill at Holyrood under the Scottish National Party was “astounding.”

Excluding the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, the yearly cost of ministerial salaries, office staff and advisers has shot up from about £2.4 million under the SNP’s first government in 2007 to more than £4.5m in 2021.

The number of Cabinet secretaries has doubled from four to eight, the number of ministers has gone up from 10 to 17, and the number of special advisers has increased from nine to 17.

Overall, the extra costs rack up to more than £10m over the course of the parliamentary term, Scottish Labour said.

The SNP had previously been vocal about the need for fewer departments, ministers and special advisers. 

Scottish Labour finance spokesman Daniel Johnson MSP said: “For years the SNP have inflicted savage austerity on councils while sparing no expense funding their own bloated operation.

“These eye-watering increases might not sting so much if we could see what we were getting in return.

“Instead taxpayers are coughing up record amounts of money for a government delivering record levels of failure.

“No amount of money can buy the SNP a vision for Scotland.”

A Scottish government spokesman said: “Labour’s so-called analysis completely overlooks the fact that the responsibilities of the Scottish government have increased substantially since 2007.”

He added that the increase in devolved powers has come alongside the challenges of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.