Staff members employed by ScotRail: FOI release

Information requested

The number of staff members employed by ScotRail, with a breakdown by financial year from 2016-17 onward.

Response

The information you have requested is contained in the table below.To note the December dates are a point in time and do not reflect the period by period movement.

Dec-16

Dec-17

Dec-18

Dec-19

Dec-20

Dec-21

Heads

FTE

Heads

FTE

Heads

FTE

Heads

FTE

Heads

FTE

Heads

FTE

Total

4929

4772

4842

4680

5001

4848.5

5304

5128.5

5248

5061.5

5137

4945

Worth noting that the period of growth from the start of the franchise until the pandemic – reductions after that caused by:

• Inability to recruit and train due to Covid restrictions – all resourcing activity for front line roles effectively ceased during the first lockdown. This included a back log of trainee drivers due to Covid related restrictions – the forecast attrition materialised, and ScotRail was unable to recruit and train backfill to forecast plan so net decrease in heads overall.
• Could not recruit in 2020 for roles like apprentices, which require close proximity working (Engineering as an example or where colleges could not deliver practical learning). This was delayed until late summer 2021.
• Delivering considerably fewer services in response to demand during the pandemic, which subsequently required less resources, for example, no need to backfill during that time in certain posts, with customer numbers significantly down, reduced resourcing levels required to service front line.

About FOI

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