Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether he has sought assurances from the Scottish Government that no public funds, civil service staff time or other official resources are being used to support the SNP’s Choose Scotland campaign for Scottish independence.

The people of Scotland deserve governments that are focused on delivering for them. This Government does not support independence or another referendum. We are focused on protecting and respecting devolution and delivering better outcomes, including through the offer of joint work on further decentralisation within Scotland that the Prime Minister made to the First Minister on 16 October.

The UK Government strongly believes in the need to uphold the reputation and impartiality of the civil service in Scotland. The Scottish Government’s Permanent Secretary, who is a UK home Civil Servant, is the Accountable Officer for the Scottish Government, and responsible for ensuring that the requirements of the Civil Service Code are met, including on the use of Civil Service time.

More widely, the Civil Service code also states that civil servants have an obligation to make sure public money and other resources are used properly and efficiently, and so any spending by the Scottish Government would need to be approached in that context.