Murdo Fraser: “These figures confirm it is just lip service when SNP ministers have pledged to get serious about reining in their…”

They clearly still don’t have the stomach for taking the tough but necessary decisions to ensure that the civil service is delivering value for money for taxpayers.

The fact that the workforce has actually increased at a time when SNP ministers have insisted their would be reduction in staffing levels could only have happened on the nationalists’ watch.

What an utter disgrace [Amnesty] is. Once a credible human rights organisation, it has been hijacked by woman-hating extremists who will even attack a rape crisis centre.

Historic Environment Scotland has lurched from one crisis to the next for years, and these latest developments make it impossible to dismiss the problems as isolated incidents.