Annual pay increments for COPFS and other Scottish Government departments: FOI release

Information requested

Information related to funding of annual pay increments for COPFS and other Scottish Government departments, specifically for:

1. When does the Scottish Government pay/ provide Scottish Government departments monies to pay/provide for the annual increment due to staff (who are due an incremental pay rise) in those Scottish Government departments that incremental payment falls to be paid in each new tax year?
2. When the Scottish Government does pay/ provide other government departments money for incremental pay rises, does that money go into a bank account under the control of the other government departments?
3. What happens to the interest on monies provided to other government departments for incremental pay rises?
4. In each since the year 2000, did the Scottish Government pay/ provide funds to Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in April of each of those years to fund incremental pay rises?
5. Was the money provided to COPFS deposited into a interest bearing account? 

Response

1. The budget for Scottish Government and its arms-length bodies, including pay costs, is laid before the Scottish Parliament and subsequently approved by it before the beginning of the new financial year. Cash funding to arms-length bodies is provided in monthly tranches.

2. For directly funded bodies, including COPFS, monthly cash transfers are sent to bank accounts controlled by them. For SG core and all other SG bodies using the main SG accounting system, cash goes into the main SG bank account.

3. In accordance with the Scotland Act 1998 (Designation of Receipts) Order 2009 as amended by the Scotland Act 1998 (Designation of Receipts) Order 2017, any bank interest received by Scottish central government bodies is surrendered to the Scottish Consolidated Fund and subsequently paid to the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland, in practice for paying into the UK Consolidated Fund. It cannot be retained by the Scottish Government or any of its bodies.

4. COPFS is provided with an overall budget, approved by the Scottish Parliament which is provided to support the costs of the body. The Scottish Government budget document provides a split of funding provided to COPFS and can be found online: Scottish Budget: 2023 to 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

5. COPFS bank accounts are controlled by COPFS

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