Scottish Government publicity bill ‘grows’ threefold to hit £12m
Difficult to test veracity of John Swinney's budget claims
THE Scottish Government’s publicity budget for promoting SNP administration policies is three times bigger than was originally thought, new figures have revealed.
Taxpayers are paying nearly £12 million to cover the cost of the Scottish Government’s communications budget, rather than the £4.3m that was reported to be the amount set aside for 2011-12.
The news comes after SNP finance secretary John Swinney claimed that the government was taking “significant steps” to save taxpayers cash by “reducing the amount we spend on communications and marketing by half”, from more than £10m to £4.3m.
Scottish Tory finance spokesman MSP Gavin Brown accused the SNP of using public money to boost the party’s profile in the run-up to the independence referendum, as he claimed that Mr Swinney had “gone back” on his pledge to reduce spending on communications.
Mr Brown said: “The SNP was quick enough to boast that they were reducing the amount spent on communications by half but this sleight of hand shows they have quietly gone back on their word by spending a large amount of money on marketing and propaganda. This is yet another example of the SNP saying one thing, but doing another. The Scottish people deserve better than this.
“The Scottish Conservatives welcomed the pledge to cut government spending on communications and it’s vital the SNP stick to this promise.
“This is a large amount of money that should be spent on maintaining and improving frontline services rather than boosting the SNP’s profile.”
Scottish Government figures showed that the administration’s strategic communications budget for 2011-12 had increased by £7.5m to £11.8m.
However, the Scottish Government insisted that the £7.5m had already been set aside for spending on communications within individual ministerial departments. A government spokesman said that the £7.5m had simply been transferred from the budgets of individual departments to the strategic communications budget, which covers the whole administration in a cost-saving measure.
The government also denied that the communications budget was being spent on promoting independence or the referendum and said that the funds were used to cover the cost of advertising campaign on issues such as road safety, crime prevention, anti-addiction and recycling household waste.
A government spokesman said: “This is not new spending – this is a routine budget transfer.
“These high-profile campaigns, including No Knives Better Lives, road safety, organ donation and smoking, are helping save lives.”
However, Eben Wilson, director of the Taxpayers’ Alliance Scotland, said that the £11.8m spent on communications was too high.
He said: “If the Scottish Government wants us to have confidence in their ability to control the public finances, this is certainly not the way to do it.”
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Comments
There are 36 comments to this article
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Simonsaid
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 08:43 PM35Mikey von Ruden 29, 31, 33... Are you members of the "Sphincters "R" Us' club? ======================================================== Eh a dono aboot the ither twa but me musel is no intae secret religious societies
Mikey von Ruden
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 07:27 PM29, 31, 33... Are you members of the "Sphincters "R" Us' club?
Gibbo
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 03:55 PM23 simonsaid, well how about that the Liebour lost their voters because they lost faith in them, so how do you get them back, you will have a great big litmus test in May hope you are feeling confident, I know I am inas much as we will take your seat in the council election. you illuastrious leader has already says she will reintroduce tution fees, sounds like a winner to me
Simonsaid
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:59 PM# 25christelijk_recht- I wonder could the Scotsman's editors estimate the cost in injuries and deaths had the costly NO KNIVES and anti-drink-driving campaigns not been implemented.? it would have been much more than 12 million. ======================================================== This is a “how long is a piece of string” question. At least with a piece of string you could get a measuring tape out and measure it. Unlike statistics which are easily manipulated to achieve the result you want. Most law abiding citizens do not need lecturing from government politicians on knife crime, drink driving or for that matter racism. And, those who are involved in such activities couldn’t care less about campaigns however much they cost. All sorts of crime figures go up and down all the time. What are needed are effective deterrents for offenders and throwing megabucks at TV adverts is not the answer
Neil Waugh
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:31 PMConsidering the present and ongoing Scotsman-BBC anti-SNP, anti-Scotland stitch-up the PR bill should probably be a 10-fold increase....If only to get the other side of the debate out there.
Maurice the Dolphin
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:27 PM"Scottish Government propaganda bill ‘grows’ threefold to hit £12m"....There fixed the title.
samcoldstream
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:12 PMAccording to new statistics on the Taxpayers Alliance website: "Since 201, when the Tory - LibDem Coaltion came to power, the government advertising and publicity budget has trebled and, in the last financial year, cost the taxpayer £67.8 million." (Source Taxpayers Alliance)
vistaero
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 01:29 PMWhat a surprise, the SNP needs to pump in more money to lie to us and counteract the disastrous policies and mounting debt it is creating in Scotland. Salmond’s Nazi slur ‘could have cost him his job if he’d said it in Germany’ I have alway said Salmond is a Nazi, his true colours is now coming to the surface, why does he not say his Nazi slur' in Germany.
Family guy
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 01:24 PMTee Hee Hee! This newspaper forgets it recieves a bit of the cash for adverts run in it! Talk about biting the hand that feeds it!
Tightfisted
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 01:18 PMWhat a shocking piece of quite evil and misleading "spin" here. The simple fact is that most of this money is spent for the very good reason that people need to be made aware of the nature of changes in legislation and the like as it affects the ordinary person. What WOULD be a crime is if we had old people, children carers etc all totally unaware of changes that might just BENEFIT them............but hey Scotsamn, don't let your hateful prejudice get in the way of a good rant...even if it IS unadulterated DRIVEL !!!
mahatmacoat
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 01:03 PMPublicity Bill? Not a month passes without an SNP publicity leaflet popping through my letterbox..The latest one states - among other howlers - that some OAPs are £100 per week better off under SNP! Where is the money coming from to finance this SNP junk mail?
christelijk_recht
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:35 PMI wonder could the Scotsman's editors estimate the cost in injuries and deaths had the costly NO KNIVES and anti-drink-driving campaigns not been implemented.? it would have been much more than 12 million.
Tintock Pete
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:13 PMIs it because they have to print everything in thousands of different languages now and Gaelic?
Simonsaid
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:36 AM#21- Gibbo - …….. to 2007 liebour had what they thought was a unasailable majority of supporters, then they woke up and drifted in droves to our party the SNP now I wonder why that was, do you have the answer or are all the used to be liebour supporters as you call them IDIOTS. ======================================================= Labour took the electorate for granted and paid the price as their members punished them by voting SNP – not, as some would have us believe, because of their desire for independence. Salmond’s promises are beginning to fray at the seams –“ Independence in Europe” has been lost in the post as has his fiscal autonomy, which he obviously got mixed up with physical anatomy- not a pretty sight if he happens to be looking in the mirror one would think
Alicia Murray
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:07 AMThings are actually being done instead of the constant talking shop that was the Lab Dems ie new campaign for forced marriage this costs but will be worth it to cut the suffering and the new alcohol campaign targeted at women is good.
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