Ulster Unionist MLA Andy Allen has expressed his anger after it was revealed the total annual salary and pension costs of the eight Special Advisers to the First Ministers have risen by 30% to an unprecedented £820,000. In the year following the restoration of devolution in 2007/08 the total cost was £632,000, almost £200,000 less.

Mr Allen, the Ulster Unionist MLA for East Belfast, said:

“These figures which were revealed to me through an Assembly question are outrageous and further demonstrate how the costs and cult of Special Advisers around the First Ministers have clearly got out of control.

“Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness have an incredible 8 Special Advisers between them in one Department and now the average annual cost for each has reached almost £103,000. In contrast there are only 8 Special Advisers in the whole of the Welsh Government.

“The growth in salaries and pensions costs has come during a time of contracting public expenditure with key services coming under serious pressure, a stagnating economy, a record number of young people not being able to find work, a major streamlining in the number and size of Executive Departments and the biggest shakeup to the welfare system in a generation. All the while however the DUP and Sinn Fein have continued to reward those privileged party apparatchiks around them with excessive and wholly unwarranted salary increases.

“Despite being entirely paid for from the public purse these Special Advisers continue to remain wholly unaccountable to anyone but their Party leader. Indeed, the revelation that Arlene Foster appointed Stephen Brimstone as one of her advisers demonstrates how detached and indifferent she was to his appalling behaviour when he was in the Department of Social Development. An independent fact-finding investigation by the civil service into his inexcusable treatment of my Ulster Unionist colleague Jenny Palmer MLA recommended that Mr. Brimstone face disciplinary action, but the DUP and their Minister simply refused to initiate any. The fact that he is now advising the First Minister demonstrates that the DUP’s audacity shows no bounds.

“These figures demonstrate that the cost of Special Advisers is simply not justifiable. I would call on the First Ministers to initiate an immediate review of the numbers and costs of Special Advisers in their Department, especially now that so many of its responsibilities have been transferred to other Departments.”

AQW 2309/16-21 tabled by Andy Allen MLA.

Question:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail the (i) salaries; (ii) other benefits; and (iii) pension benefits of each Special Adviser in their Department, in each year since 2007/8.

Answer:

The following table sets out the salaries and employer pension contributions paid to and on behalf of Special Advisers within the Executive Office, previously OFMDFM, for the financial years 2007-08 to 2015-16 inclusive.

There were no other benefits paid to Special Advisers during the above financial years.