Treasury officials and the Advocate General are to set to probe whether the Scottish Government has misused public funds by spending taxpayers' cash on campaigning for Scottish independence.

In the House of Lords on Thursday, Labour peer George Foulkes said the Advocate General for Scotland had agreed, at his request, "to instruct his officials to investigate ultra-vires expenditure by the Scottish Government.”

He then asked Treasury minister Baroness Joanna Penn to “give her assurance that her officials in the Treasury will work co-operatively” with the Advocate General’s officials.

Lady Penn responded: “I can give him that assurance.”

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The Cumnock Baron's probe was welcomed by the Scottish Conservatives. The shadow constitution secretary Donald Cameron said: “In light of last year’s Supreme Court ruling there can be no proper justification for the Scottish Government using public money to pursue independence.

“Any resources deployed in that way simply amounts to a misuse of taxpayers’ cash.

“That’s why I wrote to the Permanent Secretary objecting when Humza Yousaf created a minister for independence. You can’t have a minister in charge of pursuing a policy that’s not within his – or his government’s – remit, so I support this investigation.

“But leaving aside the legalities, the Scottish people are sick and tired of the SNP wasting time and money obsessing on independence, at the expense of their real priorities – the cost-of-living crisis, NHS waiting times and growing Scotland’s economy.”

Liberal Democrats Scottish Affairs spokesperson Christine Jardine said the Scottish Government was "wasting money on making civil servants draft up papers that are only fit for the shredder and employing a minister for independence whose main job seems to be placating their own angry activists."

“That’s a terrible misuse of public funds. The hard-pressed people of Scotland deserve better," she added.

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Scotland's most senior official has previously defended the civil service’s work on Scottish independence.

Permanent Secretary John Paul Marks told a Holyrood committee that it was for the civil service to serve the First Minister's ministerial team with impartiality.

"We serve the government of the day. 

“That includes with regards to constitutional reform, and it has been well understood under devolution for many years that the civil service in the Scottish Government serves the Scottish Government and their priorities and we provide policy advice, including the development of prospectus paper series for this government to set out its constitutional objectives."

He said the issue was "not just a theoretical debate or a strategic long-term debate, it is a here-and-now reality."

He added: "We'll continue to seek a Section 30 Order so that any referendum would always be on lawful grounds as per the last referendum in Scotland, but also recognising UK General Election in 24/25, and clearly the future of the constitution of the UK could change again, and we need to have a capability ready to respond.”

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Under Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Government began publishing a new multi-part prospectus, Building a New Scotland, in June last year, with two further parts in July and October.

A fourth was published last month. 

During the SNP leadership contest, Mr Yousaf criticised the documents saying they were material “that frankly sits on a website and nobody reads”.

In November, it emerged 25 civil servants costing up to £1.5m a year in wages were working on the Scottish Government prospectus, including one paid up to £83,000.

Last week the Herald revealed that the new Independence minister, Jamie Hepburn has no budget and only one regular member of staff working for him.

Yet as well as his basic MSP's wage of £67,662 in 2023/24, Mr Hepburn is paid an additional £31,854 as a minister.

The top-up is more than the average wage for a full-time job in Scotland of around £27,700.

My Yousaf gave the Cumbernauld & Kilsyth MSP the removing brief after pleading to create the post of minister for independence during the SNP leadership race in the spring.