The Scotland Office should be scrapped because it costs more to run the department now than before devolution, according to the Scottish National Party.

SNP MP Pete Wishart said £24m in administration costs spent since 1999 should have been given to the Scottish Parliament to spend on health and education.

A spokeswoman for Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell said only the SNP would be "foolish enough" to make such a call.

Mr Wishart, the MP for Tayside North, said it was "a nonsense" that the Scotland Office employed more people now than it did before the parliament's inception.

The money squandered on the Scotland Office should be handed back to parliament for spending Pete Wishart MP

He also claimed Mrs Liddell would be a "publicly funded campaigner for New Labour" in the run-up to next year's parliamentary elections.

He said: "It is clear that Helen Liddell has had nothing to do except go off on expensive foreign junkets, and pick fights with the media at home.

"But with the Scottish Parliament and council elections coming up in 2003, Helen Liddell will be a full time campaigner for New Labour, paid for out of the public purse.

'Law-making powers'

"That is unacceptable and an abuse of taxpayers' money, which is why the Scotland Office should be scrapped before the election."

Statistics released by the SNP suggest that in 1999/2000, £2.2m was spent on administration at the Scotland Office.

The party claimed the following year that figure had risen to £6.8m, which rose to £7.5m in 2001/2002.

In the current financial year, the figure remained at about £7.5m.

Mr Wishart added: "All of the law-making powers of the Scotland Office have been transferred to the Scots Parliament in Edinburgh - leaving Mrs Liddell without a real job to do.

'Short sighted'

"Instead of being wasted on Westminster bureaucracy, the money squandered on the Scotland Office should be handed back to parliament for spending on front line health and education services."

But a spokeswoman for Mrs Liddell dismissed the SNP claims.

She said: "Only the SNP would be foolish and short-sighted enough to call for the removal of Scotland's voice at the highest level within the UK Government."