Burying bad news?

Here is a written answer slipped out on Friday 1 July, the last day of the parliamentary session before the summer holidays:

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimated total running cost is for the current financial year and in each of the next three financial years, broken down by department.
Holding answer issued: 20 June 2005
(S2W-17154)

Mr Tom McCabe: The operating budget for the current financial year is £233 million, from which the departmental allocations set out in the following table are made. The remaining running costs relate to capital charges and other costs which are monitored centrally.
The spending plans for the administration budget for 2006-07 and 2007-08 are set out in the Scottish Executive’s Draft Budget 2005-06 and departmental allocations will be considered in light of commitments and priorities in those years.
The administration budget for 2008-09 and 2009-10 will be considered following the outcome of the 2006 Spending Review exercise.

Department 2005-06(£000)

Development 12,957
Education 12,372
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning 21,042
Environment and Rural Affairs 37,551
Finance and Central Services 19,766
Health 15,652
Justice 10,985
Corporate Services (including OPS and LPS)1 79,479
209,804

Note: 1. OPS is the Office of the Permanent Secretary; LPS is Legal and Parliamentary Services.

Interesting that so much operational effort (over 47%) should be spent on support services (Finance, Central and Corporate Services) compared with frontline departments; and that growing the Scottish economy, the Executive's first priority, should receive so little, particularly by comparison with environment and rural affairs.