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Scotland’s Transport Secretary was unable to say if Transport Scotland being merged with the Scottish Government would result in job cuts.

Stephen Flynn appeared before Holyrood’s Transport Committee on Wednesday, the first time since taking on the brief.

His appearance comes after First Minister John Swinney confirmed in his Programme for Government that the country’s transport body would be folded back into the Government’s structure as part of a wider programme of public sector reform.

Under questioning from committee convener Willie Rennie about the potential for job cuts, Mr Flynn said: “There’s obviously natural attritions that happens in every single organisation.

“But the motivation for this was not job cuts, it was not savings, it was delivery for the public.”

Pressed on the issue, the Transport Secretary added: “I’m saying that I think at this stage remiss of me to state that there would or would not be.

“I’m trying to be as clear as I can, that this work is very much just under way, and there’s going to inevitably be a conflict between the roles that some people have at the moment and those roles that exist within Government.

“As part of the wider (public service reform) piece, we’ll need to respond to that accordingly.”