Professor John Robertson OBA
In June 2025, the Express told us, delightfully:
Scots foot the bill for the ever-increasing numbers of pen-pushers employed in the public sector.
Remarkably, they also tell us this, don’t remind us it was a UK Government policy and thus try blame it on the SNP
Recently, millions had to be filtered from elsewhere to pay for an increase in National Insurance employer contributions. For years the SNP has claimed that it would be making some reductions and savings but this has never came to fruition.
Versions of the story have been repeated widely, in the Scotsman, Telegraph and the Holyrood mag.
A fact check based on a July 2025 FoI, has been little covered but reveals that there has been a 5% between March 2022 and March 2025, of 5%, from 10 877 to 10 365:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 