The UK Government’s flagship Edinburgh hub has been branded an “unnecessary shambles” after the Sunday National revealed a dedicated cabinet room has never been used to host a full meeting of ministers.
Ahead of the opening of Queen Elizabeth House in 2022, former Scottish Secretary David Mundell said he looked forward to “inviting the Cabinet to meet in the building once it is open for business”.
However, following a Freedom of Information request from the Sunday National, the UK Government has admitted Cabinet has “not yet met” in the room.
A UK Government hub in Cardiff with the same facility has also not been used for any full meetings of ministers.
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It comes after the UK Government appeared to not know how many staff work at the Edinburgh hub at the end of last year, before eventually providing numbers to in response to written question by MP Deidre Brock weeks later.
Keith Brown, the depute leader of the SNP, said the Scotland Office was showing itself to be an “unnecessary shambles”.
Sharing the Sunday National story, he said: “Budget busting; don’t know how many people work there and completely unused facilities. Scotland’s ‘other Government’ is an expensive and unnecessary shambles.”
Figures published by the House of Commons Library show Regional Cabinets have only been held around two dozen times in the past century.
Eight of these were when David Cameron was Prime Minister, while nine happened under the premiership of Gordon Brown.
The Sunday National previously revealed how Queen Elizabeth House is costing £11 million a year to run.
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The information eventually given on staff numbers showed the vast majority at the hub – more than 80% of staff - work for HMRC, with a total of 2220 out of the 2655 headcount listed.
The Scotland Office has a headcount total of 80, making it one of the larger departments alongside what was known as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy until February 2023, which had 85 staff.
When the hub was opened, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said the hub would be a base for “more than a dozen UK Government departments which all have a key role in Scotland”.
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