Belt tightening? Scots civil servants pick up £50m in golden goodbyes

The lavish payments saw two senior mandarins receive packages worth over £250,000 when they quit their jobs.

Union leaders and opposition politicians last night questioned the largesse of the public sector after the figures came to light in the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for 2010-11, which were published yesterday.

The Scottish Government last night refused to disclose who the highest rewarded civil servants were.

But two of the most high profile individuals to leave last year were Sir John Elvidge, the former permanent secretary, and Robert Gordon, the head of the former justice department.

Elsewhere in the accounts, it was revealed that Sir John will receive between £70,000 and £75,000 per year plus a lump sum of between £300,000 and £305,000.Mr Gordon will also receive an annual payment of between £70,000 and £75,000 plus a slightly smaller lump sum of between £215,000 and £220,000.

In a previous role, Mr Gordon was the civil servant in charge of the £431 million Holyrood building, which was delivered four years late and ten times over budget. He was heavily criticised for his handling of the construction project during Lord Fraser of Carmyllie’s inquiry into the fiasco.

Of those still working, Sir John’s successor as permanent secretary Sir Peter Housden has so far accrued a £75,000 per year pension plus £215,000 lump sum for when he reaches 60.

Andrew Goudie, the chief economic adviser, is on course for a pension of up to £45,000 per year and a £130,000 lump sum.

In total there were 1,039 “exit packages” of non-compulsory redundancies – totalling £49m – handed out to civil servants.

Last night Labour’s finance spokesman Richard Baker said: “The public will find it hard to square these massive payoffs and bonuses with the huge cuts that are being made across the public sector and the thousands of staff that are seeing their wages frozen for the second year running.”

Lynn Henderson, the Scottish secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: “The average civil servant gets a £4,200 per year pension, which is nothing resembling pensions and enormous lump sums taken by senior civil servants. A pension of £45,000 is almost twice as much as the average civil service wage. Despite what we are told, it would appear that we are not all in this together.”

In addition to the two mandarins who took home more than £250,000 each, there were a further ten paid between £200,000 and £250,000. Another 18 received between £150,000 and £200,000 and a further 87 received between £100,000 and £150,000.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Releasing investment to grow the economy is a key Scottish Government commitment. This means bearing down on the costs of administration. In 2010-11, the Scottish Government delivered over £16m in efficiencies. We also reduced our workforce (core) by 10 per cent, saving £15.6m a year.

On the pension earned by Sir Peter, the spokesman said: “Permanent Secretary, Sir Peter Housden leads an organisation of 6,000 plus staff and is accountable for a budget of £31 billion annually.

“His pension has been built up from 36 years of public service, including three years as a director of education, seven years as a council chief executive and six years as a permanent secretary.”