Lothians MSPs call for more cash to employ support staff

LOTHIANS MSPs are calling for the inquiry into Scottish Parliament allowances to award them more cash to do their job and employ extra staff.

In evidence to the review panel, Edinburgh Central Labour MSP Sarah Boyack claimed the £49,300 a year Member's Support Allowance (MSA) - to cover staff, office, travel and other costs - "does not adequately fund the level of service which our constituents expect from us".

She said: "The way that the MSA is structured looks very flexible giving us maximum choice, but in reality we are tightly bound given the basic costs of staffing and office accommodation."

She said she employed one full-time and one part-time staff. "I pay my staff salaries which have not kept up with inflation, which makes life difficult for staff living in Edinburgh to rent, never mind buy.

"My view is that we should all be funded to employ three full-time members of staff - one to deal with casework and service the constituency office, one to service our parliamentary office and one to provide back-up on research and information."

Ms Boyack said she issued an annual report to constituents which she regarded as "an essential communication".

And she argued Holyrood politicians should have a dedicated budget for putting out such information, like MPs who recently voted themselves a £10,000 a year "communications budget".

She said: "Substantial increases in UK parliamentary allowances have only served to highlight how systemically under-funded we are in relation to constituency casework and community engagement."

In a separate submission to the review panel, East Lothian Labour MSP Iain Gray also argued for MSPs to be able to employ more staff. He said when he was MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands in the first term of the parliament, the MSA had allowed him to employ one full-time and one part-time member of staff.

"On returning to the parliament in 2007 I find that still to be the case. Not only is this inadequate for constituency work and supporting me in parliamentary business, motions, parliamentary questions, research for debates, etc, but I can only achieve this level of support by paying salaries which do not reflect the level of responsibility undertaken.

"What is more, the allowance makes it difficult to provide for those staff proper working conditions in the constituency."

He said the allowance for advertising his constituency surgeries was not enough - "especially when considered against the Westminster communication allowance".

And he said the allowance for winding up a constituency when MSPs are voted out was also inadequate, particularly in view of the politicians' personal liability for office leases. "As a result I found myself some £3000 out of pocket, several years after winding up my constituency office."

Linlithgow Labour MSP Mary Mulligan called for a proper pay scale for staff, reflecting their skills and qualifications.

• The most controversial aspect of the Holyrood allowances system is the Edinburgh Accommodation Allowance, which allows MSPs who live well outside the Capital to claim mortgage interest payments on a second home and keep any profit on the property when they sell.

Scottish Nationalist MSP Michael Matheson suggested a trust fund should be set up and any profits be paid into that.