SNP pays £27m a year to 'zombie workers', including one NHS Highland employee without a role for 17 YEARS

Around 800 NHS, council, central government and quango staff in Scotland stay on the public payroll with no fixed job. Freedom of Information requests show 255 have had no post for more than a year. At least 49 have drawn a full salary for five years or more. The Scottish Government insists its 'no compulsory redundancies' policy remains in place.

Displaced staff sit in a 'redeployment pool' until a new role opens up.

Tory Craig Hoy branded the public sector 'a gravy train for insiders' and demanded an Auditor General probe.

Hoy called the 17-year case 'a jaw-dropping indictment of a system completely out of control'.