JOHN Swinney slapped down Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay during a spat about the number of quangos under the SNP’s watch – telling him they had been reduced by more than a third.
The First Minister batted away Findlay’s claims that top officials in Scotland play a game of “public authority bingo” to underscore his arguments that the state had become too unwieldly under the SNP.
During an exchange of blows at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Swinney told the Scottish Tory leader – who has proposed an Elon Musk-style cuts programme for the Government – that the SNP had reduced the size of the state since it took power from Labour in 2007.
Findlay told MSPs that “the most powerful civil servant tasked with keeping the state in check”, David Hamilton (above), the Scottish Information Commissioner, was unable to grasp the size of the state.
The Scottish Tory leader said: “The Information Commissioner told Parliament that he discusses the big state with the Auditor General for Scotland.
"Mr Hamilton said he doesn’t, and I’m again quoting, ‘think there’s a map that explains it all’ and that they play a game called public authority bingo, in which they ask each other: ‘Have you heard of this one and have you heard of that one?’
“The Auditor General and the Information Commissioner, the two most powerful civil servants tasked with keeping the state in check, are hitting a brick wall of SNP secrecy.
“Will the First Minister give them and all of us a bingo call by shouting out the exact number of public bodies there are in Scotland?”
Swinney (above) hit back saying that the SNP had reduced the number of public bodies it inherited from Labour 18 years ago.
He said: “On December 1, 2024, there were 131 public bodies in Scotland under our control. In 2007, when the Government came to office, there were 199. So there’s the answers that Mr Findlay’s looking for.”
Findlay claimed that Swinney had overlooked “at least another 75 public sector organisations” and added: “The size of the bloated SNP state is out of control and shrouded in secrecy.”
Swinney blasted the Scottish Tories for their historical opposition to the creation of Police Scotland, which swept away 10 separate police forces and agencies into one body and which Swinney said saved the taxpayer £200 million.
In response to Findlay’s calls for the Scottish Government to start “cutting quangos and saving taxpayers’ money”, Swinney said that the SNP were cutting almost £600m by 2027 from other spending areas to “support frontline services”.
