SNP master-plan for radical shake-up of civil service jobs

"If we have to lose a few lower-level clerks to get some senior finance experts, that's what we will have to do" - STEWART HOSIE, SNP TREASURY SPOKESMAN

Story in full THE Scottish Nationalists are considering a radical overhaul of the civil service, which they claim would enable the party to run an independent Scotland without increasing the overall number of bureaucrats, The Scotsman can reveal.

Hundreds of junior staff could be laid off to make way for more senior posts in what the party termed a "repositioning and rebalancing exercise".

Just 50,000 civil servants would be needed to administer a fully autonomous Scotland, the party will say in a strategy document to be unveiled in the next week. Plans to freeze bureaucracy levels caused concern among union officials, who warned independence would increase the workload on the civil service in Scotland, while the SNP's opponents said the proposals were "unrealistic".

The pledge, signalled in an SNP policy document, Moving Scotland On, heralds a dramatic repositioning of the party as it tries to cast aside its advocacy of "big government" and stake its claim to the centre ground of politics ahead of next year's election.

Stewart Hosie, the SNP's Treasury spokesman, confirmed it would be a "repositioning and rebalancing exercise" as the party aspires to be taken more seriously on economic affairs.

"If we have to lose a few lower-level clerks to get some senior finance experts, that's what we will have to do," Mr Hosie said.

"As we enter the run-up to the 2007 election with a real chance at power, I want to be clear that we will be as prudent with Scottish taxpayers' money as we can possibly be."

Though few observers envisage an outright win for the SNP, some suggest the prospects of the party having at least a share of power after the 2007 election are rising.

A nationalist leadership would, it is claimed, keep the same civil service head-count, but "shake up" the composition of the jobs from lower, clerical roles to more highly skilled economists and diplomats as Scotland took control over Treasury matters and foreign affairs.

Around 1,900 lower-ranking or UK-wide jobs have been identified for possible transfer to senior civil service roles. Some staff would be promoted internally, but the Executive would also need to draw from a larger talent pool, in an exercise that would include luring Scots back from Whitehall and abroad.

Mr Hosie said the exercise would be "fiscally neutral", as Scots were "already paying our share for senior people who are engaged in UK-wide policy".

If anything, Mr Hosie claimed, the move would increase revenue to Scotland as it would benefit from a 30 million rise in its workers' total spending power.

The total number of full-time civil servants in Scotland was 48,800 in the last quarter of 2005, accounting for about 1 per cent of the population.

Last night, a spokeswoman for the Public and Commercial Services Union said about 12,000 of its 35,000 members worked in devolved areas for Scottish ministers.

"We would be very concerned if plans to freeze the size of the civil service was in next year's manifesto," she said.

"The SNP has to take on board the additional workload under an independent Scotland."

Des McNulty, Labour MSP and convener of the Scottish Parliament's finance committee, said that even if there was a public will for Scotland to be independent, "the SNP needs to be clear there are many costs associated with this".

Giving Scotland diplomatic representation in Europe alone would incur "substantial costs that would not equate to the kind of head-count reduction gained from moving UK jobs", he said.

Bill Aitken, of the Scottish Tories, said he was unconcerned the SNP was treading on Conservative territory: "On the basis of past performance, SNP talk is seldom followed by any concrete action."

The party's latest announcement follows its pledge to cull quangos and reduce bureaucracy. The SNP's manifesto will include a pledge to scrap the Communities Scotland housing quango and end SportScotland's quango status.