Local competition

Lesley Riddoch (Opinion, 12 April) is absolutely right in saying that small firms get "carved out" by "large multi-department London-based consultancies" in far too many areas of Scottish Government-financed procurement.

But we also need compulsory vacancy notification if the cosy, wee world of public sector cronyism is to be opened up to local competition and Scotland needs to wrest control of civil service recruitment from the clutches of Whitehall and rubbish executive recruitment firms in London who know little about Scotland.

My hunch is service quality might improve – and costs might come down– if local competition increased.

NEIL ROBERTSON

Glamis Terrace

Dundee