Number of disputes and mediations between Scottish Government officials: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/02559  
Date received: 12 September 2018
Date responded: 11 October 2018

 

 

Details of any report of disputes between Scottish Government officials including any meetings, mediation, reasons for the dispute and resolutions. Information should include the number of disputes and mediations in 2017-18. 

 

You have requested information for Scottish Government staff.  Our response therefore covers staff who are subject to Scottish Government Main and Scottish Government Marine terms and conditions of employment and Senior Civil Servants in the organisations listed below.

We have defined disputes as disagreements which would be covered by our internal Fairness at Work and Discipline policies.

Under the Scottish Government’s Fairness at Work policy, staff are encouraged to resolve disputes at an early stage and on an informal basis, where it is appropriate to do so.  Mediation is available as part of that process. 

There is no requirement to report informal action to HR and therefore no information is held centrally about disputes between SG staff that have been resolved informally. 

Where disputes cannot be resolved informally or it would not be appropriate to do so, formal processes are followed.  Between 12 September 2017 and 12 September 2018 there were 12 formal cases which involved a dispute between staff. 

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.  

COVERAGE OF OUR RESPONSE

Our response covers staff employed on Scottish Government Main and Scottish Government Marine terms and conditions of employment and Senior Civil Servants in following areas:

•           Scottish Government Core Directorates

•           Accountant in Bankruptcy

•           Disclosure Scotland

•           Education Scotland

•           National Records of Scotland

•           Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

•           Scottish Housing Regulator

•           Scottish Public Pensions Agency

•           Student Awards Agency for Scotland

•           Transport Scotland

 

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