All staff in the Scotland Office are on secondment from the Scottish Executive or the Ministry of Justice. Staff may be eligible for non-consolidated performance payments in different ways. Firstly, through end of year performance payments under their parent bodies' performance management arrangements. The Scotland Office does not itself make the end of year awards and does not hold information centrally on end of year non-consolidated performance payments made to its secondees.
Secondly under the Special Bonus Scheme of the Scottish Executive and the Reward and Recognition Scheme of the MoJ, the Office may directly authorise non-consolidated performance payments (or in the case of the MoJ scheme, small and instantaneous awards, e.g. vouchers) in recognition of special effort, achievement and commitment. The following table shows the number and cost of non-pensionable payments made under these schemes:
Financial year Total number of payments Total cost of payments (£) Percentage work force Percentage pay bill 2004-05 3 1,400 5 0.06 2005-06 8 3,750 17 0.19 2006-07 17 4,750 32 0.25 2007-08 6 2,150 11 0.09 2008-09 8 2,900 14 0.12
The largest single payment under these schemes was £750.
Members of the senior civil service in the Scotland Office are seconded from the Scottish Executive and the Ministry of Justice, their non-consolidated performance payments are assessed under a framework set by the Cabinet Office. The Office does not hold central information on such payments.
The salary budget of the Scotland Office for 2009-10 is £2,847,000, of which non-consolidated performance payments represent an estimated 0.01 per cent.
The non-consolidated performance payments are an integral element of the reward package for staff, have to be re-earned each year and do not add to future pay bill costs (e.g. pensions). The Scotland Office believe that performance payments help drive high performance in the office.