MSPs to get £3,000 pay increase next year

MSPs are to get a pay rise of more than £3,000 from April, the Scottish Parliament has confirmed.

The 4.3% increase will mean salaries increase from £74,507 to £77,710.

The hike was calculated using Office for National Statistics average weekly earnings index for September.

Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw - a member of the cross-party Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body - said that MSPs' pay had not kept up with inflation and that it would remain lower than the salaries of MPs and members of the Welsh Senedd.

He told Holyrood's finance committee: "Over the period 2021-22 to 2026-27, MSP pay is lagging 8.2 percentage points behind (the consumer price index), which equates to around £5,300 over the period.

"Had members' salaries risen in line with inflation, they would now be £83,000 rather than £77,710.

"I don't say this to virtue-signal, but to counter the inevitable reporting of any increase generated by actions of the corporate body, I'd point out that this still leaves us behind Westminster and the Senedd when the initial arrangement between the three parliaments was that the Scottish Parliament MSP pay sat in the middle of the three."

Members of the Westminster Parliament are currently paid £93,904, while members of the Welsh Senedd are to be paid £79,817 from next year.

Last year, the Scottish government ministers partially ended a voluntary pay freeze that had been in place for 16 years.

The change means junior ministers are paid £100,575 a year, while cabinet secretaries receive £116,125.

First Minister John Swinney would have seen his pay go up to nearly £155,000 but he declined to take the increase, meaning it will remain at £135,605.