Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department has spent on communications in each year since 1997.

The Scotland Office is resourced to deliver the communications functions expected and required of a government department in its own right and on behalf of the UK Government in Scotland with a wide range of functions. These include external affairs, marketing, digital and social media, media, internal and strategic communication.

The figures for 2022-23 reflect changes made to bring the Office into line with wider UKG departmental reporting practice which saw visits and engagement staff included in the communications division.

The Office does not hold directly comparable figures for each year since the Office was established in 1999. The Office’s Annual Reports are available online.

Expenditure on staffing costs, including employer’s pensions and national insurance contributions, but excluding any VAT where applicable, to deliver these functions for the last full financial year and available years was: