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Chamber and committees

Question reference: S4W-26746

  • Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
  • Date lodged: 16 July 2015
  • Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 17 July 2015

Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-25214 by John Swinney on 2 April 2015, what changes there have been in respect of the information provided, and what the total salary cost of employing special advisers was in 2014-15.


Answer

Special advisers 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 of 14 special advisers employed during the financial year 2014-15 was £952,865.

With the appointment of Katy Bowman on 13 July 2015, there are currently 14 special advisers. The special advisers and their specific responsibilities are as follows:

Name

Role

Appointed

Liz Lloyd

Chief of Staff to the First Minister including the co-ordination of the Special Adviser team

Senior Special Adviser on the Constitution

Responsible for the First Minister’s Strategic programme in Government

Special Adviser for Culture, Europe and External Affairs (temp)

30 January 2012

Noel Dolan

Senior Special Adviser to the First Minister

FMQs, Policy Advice to the First Minister

26 May 2011

Stuart Nicolson

Head of Communications

Senior Political Spokesperson for the First Minister

26 May 2011

Colin McAllister

Head of Policy and Special Adviser to the Deputy First Minister

Senior Special Adviser for Finance and for Local Government

FMQs, Programme for Government

3 October 2012

Malcolm Fleming

Senior Special Adviser for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism and for Fair Work, Skills and Training

25 July 2011

Campbell Gunn

Deputy Spokesperson for the First Minister and Communications Adviser

8 July 2013

Ross Ingebrigtsen

Deputy Spokesperson for the First Minister and Communications Adviser

Strategic communications planning

20 January 2014

Alexander Anderson

Special Adviser for Infrastructure, Investment and the Cities and for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform

8 October 2012

John MacInnes

Political and Media Research

Support for First Minister’s Questions

Support to Communications Special Advisers

3 June2011

Davie Hutchison

Special Adviser for Health, Wellbeing and Sport

FoI Legislation lead

8 June 2011

John McFarlane

Special Adviser for Justice

Parliamentary Business including liaison with the Parliamentary Group

26 May 2011

Jeanette Campbell

Special Adviser for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights

1 April 2015

Kate Higgins

Special Adviser for Education and Lifelong Learning

1 April 2015

Katy Bowman

Support for First Minister and First Minister’s Private Office

Outreach and stakeholder engagement

Policy support to Chief of Staff

13 July 2015

 

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

Pay Band

Current Pay Range

Number of Special Advisers

1

£39,445 - £52,904

10

2

£51,041 - £67,709

1

3

£65,017 - £83,963

3

3 (premium)

£83,549 - £100,942

0

4

£86,965 - £104,462

0

*Total costs include salary, Earnings-Related National Insurance Contributions and employer pension contributions.