Full-time equivalent media officers: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide the number of FTE media officers employed by the Scottish government in the financial years 2020/21, 2019/20, 2018/19, 2017/18, and 2016/17. Please also provide the budget for the Scottish government's media relations department in each of those years.

Response

1. The number of FTE frontline communications staff/press officers for each year from 2014 to 2020 have been previously published: Numbers of FTE staff vary throughout the financial year and the figures represent staff numbers on just one day of each year, March 31st. This means that these figures are a 'snapshot': they do not represent either a total number or average number of staff employed in the year. This information has been previously published and can be found below:

• Years 2014-2017 - Number of public relations, media and press officers: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Years 2017–2019 - Scottish Government - communications and public relations staff numbers and costs: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Years 2019-2020 - Press Officers: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The number of FTE frontline communications staff/press officers is set out in the table below.

Year	FTE
2020-2021	54.9*

* FTE figures are from March 31 2021

2. The cost of frontline communications staff/press officers in each year since 2007 to the most recent financial year is available at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/cost-of-frontline-communications-staff/. We intend to publish the costs for 2020-21 on the Scottish Government website within 12 weeks.

About FOI
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