Social Security Scotland gender balance: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many women are now on the board of your organisation and how many people of other genders are there?

2. Is the current Chairperson (or person with an equivalent role) a woman or someone of another gender?

3. What is the current median FTE pay for men and women in the organisation?

4: In relation to Board Members:

a) Please supply the names of everyone currently on the board along with their registers of interest and the date that their register was last updated.

b) Please supply details of any payments made to any of the board members in the last 12 months, and a summary of the purpose of each payment.

Response

It may be helpful to explain that as an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, we do not have a board but instead have an Executive Advisory Body. This includes Non-Executive Members. Non-Executive Members are appointed by, and provide advice to, the Chief Executive who is the Agency’s Accountable Officer. We have interpreted your request as seeking information about Non-Executive Members.

1 and 2: This information is not held. This is because we do not require the Non-Executive Members to provide their gender identity. Information on the Executive and Non- Executive Members can be found on our website at Social Security Scotland - Our Executive Advisory Body and Social Security Scotland – Our Audit and Assurance Committee as well as in our Annual Report and Accounts under the performance section of the publications page on our website: www.socialsecurity.gov.scot. The Executive Advisory Body is currently chaired by the Chief Executive.

3: The information requested is not held. This is because all Social Security Scotland staff are employed by the Scottish Government we do not currently calculate the median pay of men and women within Social Security Scotland. The information on Social Security Scotland’s workforce is however collected to inform the Scottish Government’s Equality Outcomes and Mainstreaming Report 2021. Page 58 of the report shows that the median pay for men and women across the Scottish Government in 2020 was as follows:

Female		Male		Pay Gap
Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median
£40,265	£35,110	£41,561	£36,138	3.12%	2.84%

Going forward Social Security Scotland will publish this information specifically for our workforce as this is the last year that our specific duties under the Public Sector Equality Act will be published in a Scottish Government report. As information is required to be published every two years we will be publish a progress report in advance of publishing pay gap information.

Information on the median remuneration of our workforce is available and was published in our Annual Report and Accounts. The figure was £26,360 in 2019-20.

4a. This information is attached. Information can also be found on our website at Social Security Scotland - Our Executive Advisory Body. The names of all current Non-Executive and Executive members can be found on the website of Social Security Scotland: www.socialsecurityscotland.gov.uk. Annual information on membership is included in our Annual Report and Accounts.

b) An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested. This is because it is personal data of the individuals. The pay range for each individual in the period requested is as follows:

Name	£,000
Jessica Burns	0-5
Chris Creegan	0-5
Ewan Gurr	5-10
Douglas Hutchens	5-10
Elaine Noad	0-5
Laura Brennan Whitefield	0-5
Russell Firth	0-5

The costs incurred are fees for time engaged in fulfilling the role of a Non-Executive member.

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.

FOI202100181722 - Information released

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