New fears have been raised over the politicisation of Scotland’s civil service under the SNP after it emerged officials have not lodged formal objections to ministers’ spending decisions in 15 years. Figures show that so-called “ ministerial directions ”, which are requested by senior civil servants when they have concerns over a policy but see their advice overruled by politicians, have been sought dozens of times over recent years in Whitehall. The most recent example was over Priti Patel’s pl

Scotland's new chief civil servant has been urged to investigate the" dangerous culture of secrecy" in Nicola Sturgeon's government following a series of scandals that has seen documents go missing and key meetings not recorded. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, wrote to John-Paul Marks asking him to undertake a" comprehensive review" of the SNP’s approach to transparency, including document handling, concluding with a publicly available report.He said the culture of" secrecy and cover-up