WORK to increase preparation for indyref2 in the Scottish Government has increased greatly from the start of the year, it has been revealed.
The number of civil servants working to make new prospectuses for Scottish independence has doubled in under a year, with more than £1 million being spent to fund the team, new figures show.
The “constitutional futures division” is the Scottish Government’s team for drawing up blueprints for an independent Scotland and is led by Brian Dornan who earns between £77,340 and £83,233.
The team was responsible for the two white papers which outlined the economic case against staying in the Union and made the democratic case for independence.
It only had 10 civil servants at the end of the last year but new official figures obtained by the Scottish Daily Mail show there were now 22 people working on the team.
It was revealed in March by Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson there were 15 people on the team.
The salaries of other members of the team are also known, but Dornan is the only member senior enough to have his pay scale publicly linked to him.
The Mail reports another member of the team, who remains anonymous, is in the C3 pay grade, meaning they earn between £75,446 to £77,340, though this employee is not mentioned in the freedom of information release, published on August 10.
Six members are in the C2 pay grade, earning between £65,275 and £75,341 and nine others are on C1 salaries ranging from £49,861 and £62,167.
One on the team is on a B3 salary of £39,659-£47,485, two are on salaries of between £31,542 and £36,129, which are B2 salaries and two are on B1 rates of between £27,237 and £30,039.
The total annual cost for the team will be between £1,150,402 to £1,351,483.
Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said the cash was being spent on “the nationalists’ own self indulgent project”.
A Scottish Government spokesperson told the paper: “It is the role of the civil service to support the elected government of the day in developing and implementing its policies.
“The Scottish Government has a clear democratic mandate both to offer people a choice over their future and to ensure that choice is an informed one.”
