Liberal Democrats have revealed that under the SNP, almost £145 million has been spent on agency staff, an increase of nearly 9 per cent since 2007.

Freedom of Information requests to all public sector organisations, including health boards, councils, the Scottish Government and quangos show that the spend on agency staff for 2007/08 was £132,980,809 and in 2008/09 was £144,495,868

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Finance spokesperson Jeremy Purvis MSP said:

“Our research is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of use of agency staff in the public sector.

“Appropriate and limited use of agencies to provide specialist support is, of course, necessary. However, our exhaustive research reveals the astonishingly high levels of spending on agency staff. That is deeply concerning.

“Agency staff are much more expensive than those working under contracts within the public sector.

“This £145 million is not outsourced work, but taxpayers’ money being spent on more expensive agency staff.

“The scale of the spend is even more concerning give that agency staff numbers don’t show up in Government public sector headcount figures.

“Our research shows an almost nine percent increase in spending on agency staff since the SNP came to office.

“With public sector workers worried about losing their jobs and budgets tighter than ever, we really have to question the amount of money being spent on agency staff.

“The information we have revealed requires a very serious response from public sector managers as budgets are reduced and public sector workers are still fearful for their jobs.”