Agency staff employed by Social Security Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

1. The current number of agency staff that are working for Social Security Scotland. Please provide a breakdown by work location (Dundee, Glasgow etc).
2. The number of agency staff that have been let go or had their contracts discontinued since January 1st, 2023 until present date (17th April 2023).
3. The total number of agency staff working for Social Security Scotland at the end of each financial year since Social Security Scotland was established (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23). If you can, provide a breakdown by location too.
4. The total number of members staff members (who are not agency staff) at the end of each financial year since Social Security Scotland was established (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23).

Response

1. Please see the following table which shows the total number of agency staff that are currently working for Social Security Scotland as of the date of your request, 17 April 2023. The table shows agency staff by type (interim or temporary) and contracted base location. 

Interim Staff (agency)		Temporary Staff (agency)
Glasgow	Dundee	Glasgow	Dundee
83	1	6	1
Total agency staff	91

2. We do not hold information on the number of agency staff that were ‘let go’ or had their contracts ‘discontinued’ prior to their planned contract end date (between 1st January 2023 and 17th April 2023). 

We can provide the following table which shows the total number of agency staff who had contracts that ended as planned, between 1st January 2023 and 17th April 2023. The table shows agency staff by type (interim or temporary). 

Interim Staff (agency)	Temporary Staff (agency)
14	149
Total agency staff	163

3. Social Security Scotland publishes quarterly statistical information which includes the requested data on the total number of agency staff working for Social Security Scotland at the end of each of the following financial years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. 

These publications can be found at the link below:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications 

The specific data related to agency staff can be found within the ‘Social Security Scotland – workforce information: December 2022’ document on ‘Table 2: Headcount of contingent workers’. Please note, we are unable to provide agency staff locations as we do not track, store or publish this data. 

The latest published period is to the end of December 2022, published in March 2023. Quarterly updates to the tables in our publications are released in March, June, September, and December. 

Requested data for the 2023 financial year end will be available in the next quarterly publication of statistics. 

An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA therefore applies to the release of the 2023 Financial year end information requested because we intend to publish that information on 13 June 2023, which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this routinely published information before the planned publication date.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because the information aids transparency into how the agency workforce is comprised, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

4. Social Security Scotland publishes quarterly statistical information which includes the requested data on the total number of staff members (who were not agency) working for Social Security Scotland at the end of each of the following financial years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

These publications can be found at the link below: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications

The specific data related to agency staff can be found within the ‘Social Security Scotland – workforce information: December 2022’ document on ‘Table C1: Headcount of directly employed staff’.

The latest published period is to the end of December 2022, published in March 2023. Quarterly updates to the tables in our publications are released in March, June, September, and December. Therefore requested data for the 2023 financial year end will be published in June 2023.

Requested data for the 2023 financial year end will be available in the next quarterly publication of statistics.

An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA therefore applies to the release of the 2023 Financial year end information requested because we intend to publish that information on 13 June 2023, which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this routinely published information before the planned publication date.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because the information aids transparency into how the agency workforce is comprised, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.