Scottish Government core directorates: pay and staffing numbers: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


FOI reference: FOI/18/01250
Date received: 28 April 2018
Date responded: 29 May 2018

Information requested

Information on Scottish Government pay and staffing numbers:

In each of the following years - 2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, and 2014/15

  • How many staff have been employed directly by the Scottish Government?

  • What has been the total salary bill?

  • How many were on pro rata salaries of more than £145,000?

  • How many constitutional lawyers have been employed?

  • And how many have either worked overseas or in 'Foreign Office' type roles?

Response

Staffing Numbers:

Total numbers of staff employed directly by the Scottish Government for the years specified are as follows:

Directly employed staff, Scottish Government Core directorates
  2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18
Figures as at: 31-Mar-15 31-Mar-16 31-Mar-17 31-Mar-18
Directly employed staff Headcount 5382 5385 5458 5911
Directly employed staff FTE (a) 5149 5152 5214 5648

(a) Full-time equivalent

Salary Expenditure:

The total salary expenditure for directly employed staff can be found in the administration section of the Scottish Government consolidated accounts which are available here:

2014-2015 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/10/3786

2015-2016 https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-consolidated-accounts-2015-16/pages/16/

2016 - 2017 https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-consolidated-accounts-year-ended-31-march-2017/pages/3/

The report on total pay expenditure for the 2017-2018 pay year is not yet available.

Numbers of staff on pro rata salaries exceeding £145,000 are as follows:

Period Number of staff with salaries exceeding £145k
2014-2015 1
2015-2016 3 (b)
2016-2017 2
2017-2018 2

(b) For 2015-2016 there were two posts earning over £145,000, however one of these posts was held by two different individuals throughout the year.

Constitutional lawyers:

Lawyers in Scottish Government Legal Directorate (SGLD) are generally trained as constitutional lawyers but they do not work exclusively on constitutional issues. If you would like to clarify your question we can seek to provide the figures.

Further information relating to your request:

For further information on Scottish Government pay the public sector pay policy is available online at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/public-sector-pay/staff-pay

For further Scottish Government workforce statistics please see our quarterly publication available at http://www.beta.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/

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

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference

Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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