Chamber and committees

Question reference: S4W-17608

Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: 2 October 2013
Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 3 October 2013

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the names of its special advisers; what their responsibilities are; what their pay bands are for 2013-14; how many special advisers are in each pay band, and what the total salary cost of employing special advisers was in 2012-13.

Answer

There are currently 13 special advisers. They are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a special adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

The total costs of the special adviser team employed during financial year 2012-13 was £925,105, a real terms decrease of £60,653 from the uprated 12 month cost of the 2006-07 Special Adviser team which was £985,758.

The specific responsibilities of the special advisers are as follows:

Name	Role	Appointed
Geoff Aberdein	Chief of Staff Responsible for the First Minister's strategic programme in Government First Minister’s senior intermediary with key internal and external stakeholders Coordination of the Special Adviser team Policy support on Commonwealth Games and Sport portfolio	26 May 2011
Stuart Nicolson	Head of Communications Senior Political Spokesperson	26 May 2011
Noel Dolan	Senior Special Adviser to the Deputy First Minister Policy advice on Infrastructure and Investment portfolio Policy advice on Welfare	26 May 2011
Liz Lloyd	Senior Special Adviser for Finance (Policy and Communications) Constitution Communications	30 January 2012
Campbell Gunn	Senior Special Adviser and Political Spokesperson	8 July 2013
Alexander Anderson	Support to the First Minister’s Private Office Contributing to FM’s keynote speeches and new media Policy advice for Culture and External Affairs	8 October 2012
Malcolm Fleming	Policy advice on Energy, Rural Affairs and the Environment portfolios Policy advice on International Development portfolio	25 July 2011
John MacInnes	Lead on political research Support for First Minister’s Questions Support to the Communications Special Advisers	3 June 2011
Ewan Crawford	Senior Special Adviser supporting Ministers on Government Strategy and Constitutional issues	13 February 2013
Colin McAllister	Head of Policy Senior Adviser for Education and Lifelong Learning	3 October 2012
David Hutchison	Policy advice on the Health and Wellbeing portfolio Adviser for Broadcasting Lead on FOI legislation	8 June 2011
John McFarlane	Policy advice on Justice portfolio Policy advice on Parliamentary Business portfolio, including engaging with Parliamentary Liaison Officers	26 May 2011
Delancy Johansson	Cross portfolio special adviser reporting to Head of Policy	8 October 2012

The current special adviser pay bands and ranges and the number of special advisers within each pay band are:

Pay Band	Current Pay Range	Number of Special Advisers
1	£39,445 - £52,904	7
2	£51,041 - £67,709	3
3	£65,017 - £83,963	3
3 (premium)	£83,549 - £100,942	0
4	£86,965 - £104,462	0

Total Costs include salary, ERNIC and employer pension contributions. Total costs figures have been converted into real terms (2012-13 prices) to adjust for inflation using HM Treasury deflators, published on 27th June 2013. These were the latest available deflators at the time of calculation; September 2013.

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