Scottish Government publicity bill ‘grows’ threefold to hit £12m

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.”