SCOTLAND’s most senior civil servant has blasted colleagues south of the Border over how they work with the devolved administrations.
In a blog written at the start of February, and released under the Freedom of Information act, Scottish Government Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans says she spent two days with senior civil servant colleagues in London where she gave a “pretty frank presentation on behalf of all three devolved administrations” about the difficulties of working with Whitehall.
Evans's candid comment in the missive, part of a monthly round-up sent to the 17,200 workers of the devolved civil service, comes as the relationship between the mandarins of the Scottish and UK governments is tested over Brexit negotiations.
Evans wrote: “I gave a pretty frank presentation on behalf of the three devolved administrations about our experience of working with [the UK Government] on EU exit and the challenges and opportunities ahead.”
A Scottish Government source told the Times that Theresa May’s civil servants simply don’t understand Scotland.
“They don’t seem to have anybody around who knows Scotland, who gets devolution and knows how we operate,” the source said.
“At least when David Cameron was prime minister, there were people who understood Scotland and there were channels we could use to make sure problems didn’t get any worse. That all seems to have disappeared.”
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