Fair Work First: grants awarded
Data on public sector grants requiring employers to comply with Fair Work First conditionality.
2024 to 2025
This data focuses on the policy's second year (first full financial year) of implementation.
We contacted public bodies across Scotland to request data on grants awarded between April 2024 and March 2025. Overall, 106 responses were received from across the public sector, of which 39 reported awarding no relevant grants during this period.
Key findings
Between April 2024 and March 2025:
- 5,234 grants were awarded with Fair Work First conditions with a combined value of £3.42 billion
- 176 approved exceptions were awarded to meeting the real Living Wage condition - these grants had a combined value of £385.4 million
- most exceptions covered only part of an organisation's workforce - the most commonly cited reason was for the employment of apprentices and 16–17-year-olds
Detailed breakdown
Table 1: Fair Work First grants and exceptions 2024 to 2025
|
Category |
Number |
Value |
|---|---|---|
|
Grants with Fair Work conditions |
5,234 |
£3,420.0 |
|
Exceptions to the real Living Wage condition approved |
176 |
£385.4 |
|
Exception requests declined |
1 |
Not applicable |
Source: Scottish Government request for information from funding organisations across the public sector in Scotland (June 2025).
Table 2: exceptions by sector 2024 to 2025
|
Sector |
Number of exceptions |
|---|---|
|
Private sector |
84 |
|
Public sector |
72 |
|
Third sector |
20 |
Source: Scottish Government request for information from funding organisations across the public sector in Scotland (June 2025).
Note: an organisation may receive more than one exception, therefore the numbers above do not represent the number of individual organisations with an approved exception.
Table 3: workforce coverage of exceptions 2024 to 2025
|
Workforce coverage |
Number of exceptions |
|---|---|
|
Part of workforce |
155 |
|
Whole workforce |
3 |
| Unknown | 18 |
Source: Scottish Government request for information from funding organisations across the public sector in Scotland (June 2025).
Note: an organisation may receive more than one exception, therefore the numbers above do not represent the number of individual organisations with an approved exception.