The Cost of The Devolved Parliaments

The Institute for Government released its "Devolution at 20" analysis of the cost and changes in the devolved Parliaments over their 20 years in existence. Given the embarrassing responses to the COVID crisis from the devolved parliaments, many are wondering why we spend so much on them.

The cost for each parliament per person is far higher than the UK parliament, which comes last at £8.10 per citizen.

For the devolved regions the costs are £17.50 per Welsh citizen for the Welsh Assembly, £18.25 per Scottish citizen for the Scottish Parliament and £19.70 per Northern Irish citizen for the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The total running cost for the UK Parliament were £553 million for 2017/18.

For the same time period the Scottish Parliament cost £99 million and the Welsh Assembly £55 million. Even though the Northern Ireland Assembly did not sit at all, it still cost £37 million.

It is important to note when comparing these figures that the UK Parliament has to represent MPs from all the UK, meaning that even though the Scottish Parliament has local representatives in MSP, MPs from Scotland are also employed, and all earn quite envious salaries.

Whereas as in England the only parliamentary representative is the single MP.

From 1 April 2020, UK members of parliament are to receive a salary of £81,932. By comparison, a member of the Scottish Parliament is paid £64,470. There are of course additional payment for taking on additional duties. For being prime minister, for example, Boris Johnson was paid £75,440 on top of his MP salary of £79,468 bringing his total 2019 earnings to £154,908.

Conversely Nicola Sturgeon as the first minister of the Scottish Parliament will be paid £93,391 on top of her base salary as an MSP of £64,470, making her total 2020 earnings £157,861.

The report also draws attention to the redistributive nature of the union in this graph:

This graph only covers years until 2015. However, with the continued decline in the price of oil, the trends are not likely to have changed since, with England being the most highly taxed region and also the least-spent-on per citizen.

Additionally, the breakdown of fiscal deficits for each region further demonstrates how reliant UK’s countries are on the Union.