A Scottish Government quango spent £175,000 on 'coaching' for its bosses in two years, despite a stretched budget and questions over its performance.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) spent an average of £7,000 a month on executive coaching between 2022 and 2024, a freedom of information request has shown.

The money was splashed out on sessions delivered by an Edinburgh-based firm called Discovery Coaching Limited.

It is run by Jonathan Frost, a consultant who has authored books on business including 'When Zebras Discover Motorbikes' about how to "influence people, situations and results".

Politicians have branded the spending by the green watchdog "absurd" and said it was a "prime example of the SNP's bloated and wasteful quango culture".

Sepa said its spending on coaching reflects its commitment to "continuous improvement" and had gone through the appropriate tender process.

The money has all been spent since Nicole Paterson took over as Sepa's chief executive in late 2022.

At a time when Scotland is seeing tens of thousands of sewage dumping incidents every year, Nicole Paterson should set out exactly what performance benefits the public are seeing for their £175,000.

Alex Cole Hamilton, Scottish Liberal Democrats

It paid for over 40 members of Sepa's "wider leadership cohort" to take part in "leadership development work", the freedom of information response notes.

Paterson herself is paid over £125,000 a year and is one of five senior staff members on a six-figure salary.

Discovery Coaching lists big businesses among its clients, including Scottish Power and Edinburgh Airport.

Jonathan Frost claims to have worked with "literally hundreds of managers and directors" and coined the term 'thinknosis'- the practice of "guiding people into a state of deeper thought, focus and concentration".

Sepa has faced criticism over its performance including for failing to seek prosecutions of those who have broken environmental rules.

Prosecutions of polluters after reports by the regulator dropped from 18 a year to zero between 2014 and 2023. That's despite the number of complaints about pollution by the public rising over that period.

'Licence to pollute'? Prosecutions of environmental rule-breakers plummet

Sepa has seen its budget shrink by more than a quarter in real terms since 2010, analysis by The Ferret has found.

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Alex Cole Hamilton, told The Ferret that while public sector organisations need to "invest in skills and training" the amount spent on the coaching looked "absurd".

He added: "Taxpayers will be wondering whether Sepa is letting senior staff pad their CVs or whether it simply hired poorly in the first place.

"At a time when Scotland is seeing tens of thousands of sewage dumping incidents every year, Nicole Paterson should set out exactly what performance benefits the public are seeing for their £175,000."

The Scottish Labour MSP, Monica Lennon, claimed "extravagant spending on senior executives while frontline staff, the public and the environment get left behind has become too common under the SNP".

Lennon added: "Ultimately, Scotland's environment watchdog must stand up to the big polluters wrecking our environment and that can only happen if the SNP's budget is fair and Sepa's leadership spends it wisely."

Scottish Conservatives finance spokesperson, Craig Hoy MSP, claimed the public would be "rightly angry" to be paying for coaching for senior executives.

Hoy said: "This is a prime example of the SNP's bloated and wasteful quango culture."

This is a prime example of the SNP's bloated and wasteful quango culture.

Craig Hoy MSP, Scottish Conservatives

A spokesperson for Sepa noted a programme to "enhance leadership capability and capacity" was agreed as part of its "organisational reset" in 2023 and paid for by "savings" within the leadership team.

They added: "Like other public bodies, investing in leadership coaching reflects our commitment to continuous ...