WHITEHALL has warned that Scottish taxpayers would face a bill running into billions of pounds if an independent Scotland replicated the vast array of public bodies run by the UK.
However, if the new Government was to recreate many, if not most, of the 200 or so entities set out by the UK Government, then this would lead to the creation of tens of thousands of new public sector jobs.
A Whitehall insider said: "Replicating many of these bodies would have enormous capital and revenue implications running into billions of pounds."
He pointed out how a leaked memo from John Swinney, the Scottish Finance Secretary, said that the cost of setting up a new tax system alone would be £600 million.
However, the Scottish Government responded by pointing out that Scotland already had much of the infrastructure of an independent country and the Whitehall list showed "just how cluttered and inefficient the UK public sector landscape is". It also said it would be entitled to a share of UK assets.
As well as a number of government departments such as the Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office, the Scotland Office list points to well-known official bodies like the BBC, the Office of Fair Trading and the Medical Research Council as well as more obscure ones such as the National Measurement Office.
David Mundell, the Scotland Office Minister, said the list of 200 or so public bodies would remind people how many changes would have to be undertaken in every walk of life in Scotland should voters say yes to independence in next year's referendum.
He said: "This list clearly illustrates the range of ways in which the UK delivers for Scotland and all other parts of the UK.
"I am sure it will be an eye-opener for some how large and complex a task it would be to replicate many of the services and bodies that we have working for us as part of the UK today."
Although the list runs to more than 200 UK bodies, the UK Government considers this to be a conservative estimate as there are organisations like the Bank of England that do not feature due to the definition of what constitutes a "public body".
The list was published in response to a request from the Scottish Government to the UK Government for it to share information regarding Whitehall's first Scotland Analysis paper, published in February.
It said an independent Scotland might need to create up to four times as many public organisations as it presently had, around 50, to perform the same functions provided by the UK today.
The first analysis paper said that to give a sense of the scale of the operation that could face the government of an independent Scotland "around 490,000 staff are employed in over 230 UK central government organisations. More than 140 of these organisations perform functions for Scotland, reserved to the UK Government".
At present, some 27,000 civil service staff are employed across 50 Scottish Government bodies.
A Scotland Office spokesman said the list "should assist the Scottish Government in explaining whether and how it would replicate these bodies or expand existing ones to perform many of the critical functions they carry out and what the likely costs would be".
However, a spokesman for the Scottish Government said it would be wrong to suggest an independent Scotland would need to replicate many of the bodies on the Whitehall list such as Public Health England and the British Library.
He said: "The list published today by the UK Government shows just how cluttered and inefficient the UK public sector landscape is.
"Devolved public bodies will shortly reduce to 113, representing a 43% decrease from a baseline of 199 in 2007.
"For some of the bodies named in this list, Scotland also already has its own equivalent national bodies.
"For example, we have our own national sporting and tourism authorities.
"An independent Scotland will also be entitled to inherit its fair share of existing UK assets."
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