Civil servants tasked with ensuring taxpayers’ money isn’t wasted sent on £8k course to learn how to write better

CIVIL servants tasked with ensuring taxpayers’ money is not wasted are being sent on a writing course costing £8,000.

The training is intended to help senior staff communicate in “plain English”.

About a dozen staff in the Scottish Procurement and Commercial Directorate (SPCD) will take part in the training, which is scheduled for February and lasts up to two days.

The SPCD’s role is to oversee public procurement and deliver “savings, benefits and efficiencies” for the public purse, according to the Scottish Government website.

The department is led by the SNP’s finance minister Derek Mackay MSP.

Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives have criticised the decision to spend £700 a head on teaching writing skills to a dozen of his staff, ranging from administrators to senior officials.

One government source said: “We’ve identified new starts that would benefit from having writing skills training.

“We’re not lacking skills. It’s to improve writing, planning, drafting, editing and preparing all sorts of written materials.

“It’s not simply about how you’d write things. It’s a range of skills, such as making sure things are in plain English, and clear, so that we can communicate as well as we can.” Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “At a time when our schools are desperate for additional cash to help our children read, write and gain a good education, this money could be better spent.”

The Scottish Conservatives said: “If those charged with delivering value for money are throwing cash around, Scottish taxpayers should be very worried indeed.”

The Scottish Government said: “Effective writing is a key skill for staff to develop so they can communicate clearly and efficiently.”

Interesting, relevant and 16pt? Yes, Minister

A freedom of information request revealed the preferences and instructions given to Scottish ministers’ staff and speech writers about visits, speeches and briefings.

Derek Mackay, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work Engagement, for example was said to “place great importance on the quality of his speeches and wants to ensure that they are both interesting and relevant to his audience.

“Mr Mackay speaks at 140 words per minute. Remember to reduce each speech by 20% to allow the Minister to add his own personal steer to the speech and/or to allow interventions for parliamentary debates”

His speech writers were told to “welcome key people at the start; include what the audience expect to hear from Mr Mackay; make it audience appropriate. This is vitally important.

“For example, if Mr Mackay is speaking to an audience of school children, do not provide a speech that is top heavy with policy information; include interesting quotes for large speeches; check if anyone in the audience is worthy of a mention. For example, anyone retiring, anyone receiving an OBE and so on.”

The document also revealed how Mr Mackay likes his speeches on the page, in Arial typeface, font size 16, double spaced, page breaks at the end of a paragraph, page numbers at top right, and the end clearly marked.