Consultants: Row over agencies' bill for specialist services

SCOTTISH Enterprise spent more than £21 million in a year on consultants and contract workers, new figures have revealed.

The agency was one of three whose total bill for additional staff for the year reached 24m.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said almost 500,000 was being spent each week across Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Futures Trust and Skills Development Scotland. During First Minister's Questions at Holyrood, he contrasted that bill with the jobs he said were being cut across the country.

But First Minister Alex Salmond insisted the agencies were instrumental in creating apprenticeships and were central to economic recovery.

A Scottish Enterprise spokesman said: "The majority of our spend on consultancy services directly supports our work with Scottish businesses.

"Over the past seven years, our spend on consultancy services has reduced by more than half."

A spokesman for the Scottish Futures Trust said it "only uses consultants when it is necessary and cost-effective to do so".