SNP ‘squanders' £20m of public money on ‘woke' jobs and training
The Scottish Tories said figures showed the sum has been spent on equality, diversity and inclusion (IDE) roles and training since 2019.
The total included £2.5 million spent by Scottish councils, £1 million by the justice sector, £8.9 million by the NHS, £5.9 million by universities and £1.7 million by the Scottish Government.
The Tories said the real total is likely to be much higher, as many organisations said they could not provide their spending as the figure was not held centrally.
Rachael Hamilton MSP, the Scottish Conservatives' deputy leader, said: 'Hard-pressed Scots will be outraged that the SNP have squandered millions on woke training and roles, when they are making savage cuts to vital public services.
Examples of the spending uncovered by the FoIs include £3,000 for membership of Stonewall's controversial Diversity Champions Scheme and £1,100 on transgender awareness training.
The spending was disclosed after The Telegraph reported in February that there are 46 Scottish Government employees with 'diversity', 'equality' or 'inclusion' in their job titles.
Kaukab Stewart, the SNP Equalities Minister, said they were on course to cost the public purse around £4 million in 2024-25, the equivalent of £86,326 for each post.
It also emerged that more than 6,000 SNP government staff have taken part in 'mandatory annual inclusive culture training' to ensure they all feel welcome and valued in the workplace.
Ms Hamilton said: 'This is yet another example of the SNP prioritising ideological projects over the issues that people actually care about.
'It's difficult to justify this level of spending when the NHS remains in permanent crisis mode, educational standards are plummeting, and Scotland continues to have the highest drug death rate in Europe.
'It's no wonder Scots are fed up with Left-wing politicians at Holyrood. They're wasting taxpayers' money like it's going out of fashion.'
The IDE job costs were published amid a landmark employment tribunal brought by nurse Sandie Peggie against NHS Fife and Beth Upton, a transgender doctor who was allowed to use a female hospital changing room.
Isla Bumba, the health board's equalities officers, told the tribunal last week that the definition of biological sex was 'far more complex' than whether someone had a male or female body.
She said she would 'hazard a guess' that she was female, but she had not had her chromosomes tested to find out 'what my own body is made of biologically.'
Ms Bumba also said that she did not need to 'know anything' about the body of Dr Upton, who was born male, before advising that the medic should be given access to the female changing room at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
JK Rowling took to social media at the weekend to accuse NHS Fife of being 'ideologically captured' but placed blame at the door of the SNP government.
'This is Nicola Sturgeon's legacy: a government that publicly backs the hapless, unprofessional, ideologically captured health board that's persecuting a nurse for asserting her legal right to a single-sex changing room,' she wrote.
The tribunal is scheduled to resume on Monday morning after NHS Fife released a controversial media statement on Friday afternoon that accused Sex Matters, a human rights charity which is backing Ms Peggie, of 'steering public opinion' on the row.
It also said the debate on the case had led to staff receiving personal attacks, including a threat of physical harm and sexual violence reported to Police Scotland.
But the board was forced to amend the statement at least twice after Ms Peggie's lawyers accused it of suggesting that her supporters were behind the attacks.
A sentence was added saying Sex Matters had not 'contributed to the behaviour or issues mentioned above.'
But Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, demanded that NHS Fife's board, including chief executive Carol Potter, resign over its 'dire' handling of the case.
An NHS Fife spokesman said: 'As this is an active legal case, it would be inappropriate to respond to these comments.'
A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'It would be inappropriate to comment further while judicial proceedings in an employment tribunal are ongoing.' Ms Sturgeon's spokeswoman was approached for comment.
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