To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department spent on training courses for staff in the last (a) 12 months and (b) five years. (210569)

The staff in the Scotland Office are on secondment from the Scottish Executive or the Ministry of Justice; both Departments provide access to training and development opportunities. The office incurred the following direct expenditure:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what training courses were (a) available to and (b) taken up by civil servants in his Department in the last 12 months. (210584)

The Scotland Office encourages all staff to undertake learning and development activities. The majority of opportunities are provided through the Scottish Executive and the Ministry of Justice; but where the training need is still not available within central Government, external training courses may be considered.

The Office does not maintain a central record of all training courses attended by staff.