SCOTTISH LABOUR demanded answers today after it emerged that more than £700,000 has been paid to outsource the creation of Scotland’s new national care service.

The flagship policy aims to bring adult social care under the control of a new body which, according to a consultation launched into the initiative, could also control children’s and addictions services.

But parts of the system’s early development have been farmed out to major consultancy firms.

PwC has received £168,360 for analysing responses received during the consultation and for designing the operating model, while KPMG was given a £546,000 contract to develop a business case for the service earlier this month. 

Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie asked SNP ministers yesterday why this work could not be done by civil servants already employed by the state.

“We need a national care service run in the best interests of service users and workers, but so far it is only big companies that have benefited from the SNP’s actions,” she said.

“Serious questions need to be asked about the government’s lack of vision and why there is not the expertise within the public sector, in health and social care, or with the army of civil servants in Edinburgh to undertake [this] work.

“It’s time for the government to come clean on why the people of Scotland are footing the bill for these contracts and commit to putting the service users and workers at the centre of the national care service.”

A Scottish government spokesman claimed the firms — contracted to provide “specialist services” — had been “appointed through fair and transparent procurement processes.”