Commenting on reports that many inside the civil service feel pressured into taking sides over the independence referendum, Shetland MSP Tavish Scott said:
"Many good men and woman who work in the civil service in Scotland hate what has happened to this great institution under the SNP.
"No one should be put under pressure to take sides, either directly or indirectly, in what is a very personal choice.
"It is a sad fact that the poisonous atmosphere of politicisation that has been fostered by the SNP is now creating real tensions in the civil service. It has to stop and those at the top of the civil service must stop aiding and abetting the SNP in using the civil service as a political plaything."