Pay rise of £19,000 for ministers won’t cost public purse a penny, says Todd

A £19,000 pay rise given to Scottish ministers will not cost the public purse a penny, the social care minister has said.

Maree Todd defended the First Minister’s decision to partially end the pay freeze for ministers which has been in place for 16 years.

Junior ministers will now be paid £100,575 a year while Cabinet secretaries will earn £116,125.

John Swinney has said he will not accept the £19,126 increase.

A voluntary pay freeze for ministers has been in place since 2009 when Alex Salmond was first minister.

They have since then declined to accept the rise, instead donating it back into the public purse, with around £2.2 million raised.

The latest decision means ministers will now be entitled to their full MSP salary, although their ministerial salary will remain at 2009 levels.

Appearing on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Wednesday, Ms Todd said the move does not count as a pay rise.

She said: “It’s not a pay rise, it won’t cost the public purse a penny extra, and I think it’s very important that people understand that.

“Since 2008 ministers have been, instead of accepting their pay rise every year, they have been taking it off their pay and putting it back into a public pot.”So ministers have donated £2.2 million to the public purse since that pay freeze came in.

“That means ministers like me were paid £55,000 a year for their MSP work.

“What’s happened now is that I am now going to be paid the same as my other backbench colleagues.”

First Minister Mr Swinney said the decision to raise ministerial salaries was made out of “fairness”, but said he will not take the increase to ensure Scots do not think he made the change to benefit personally.

Opposition parties have attacked the Government over the rise, with Scottish Labour describing it as a “reward for failure”.