Fair Work First: grants awarded

2025 to 2026

We contacted public sector funders across Scotland to request data on grants awarded between April 2025 and March 2026. Overall, 94 responses were received from across the public sector, of which 27 reported awarding no relevant grants during this period.

Key findings

Between April 2025 and March 2026:

• 5720 grants were awarded with Fair Work First conditions with a combined value of nearly £4 billion
• 278 approved exceptions were awarded to meeting the real Living Wage condition - these grants had a combined value of £577.7 million
• most exceptions covered only part of an organisation's workforce - the most commonly cited reason was for the employment of apprentices and 16 to 17 year-olds

Detailed breakdown

Table 1: Fair Work First grants and exceptions 2025 to 2026

Source: Scottish Government request for information from funding organisations across the public sector in Scotland (June 2025).

Table 2: exceptions by sector 2025 to 2026

Source: Scottish Government request for information from funding organisations across the public sector in Scotland (June 2026).
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 2025 to 2026

Source: Scottish Government request for information from funding organisations across the public sector in Scotland (June 2026).
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.