Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much and what proportion of his Department's budget was spent on activities which were contracted out in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12, (d) 2012-13 and (e) 2013-14; and how much and what proportion of his Department's budget he expects to be contracted out in 2014-15.

Since its creation in July 1999, the Scotland Office has contracted out work in cleaning, building repairs and maintenance and security guarding. Calculating how much and what proportion of the Office’s budget was spent on these activities in each year between 2009-10 and 2014-15 could only be done by incurring disproportionate cost.