Scottish Government Hiring Process: FOI release

Information requested

1 - Please provide me your hiring process policy & procedures.

2 - Please provide me your diversity/equality policy & procedure.

3a - Do you have hiring quotas based on ethnic group? (Yes or No)

3b - If yes, please breakdown your target quota percentage & the current percentage of staff employed for each of the following ethnic groups (as defined for England & Wales by Gov.UK) https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/ethnic-groups

• Asian or Asian British
• Black, Black British, Caribbean or African
• Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups
• White
• Other ethnic groups

3c - If an ethnic group quota is reached, do you temporarily stop hiring people from that ethnic group? (Yes or No)

3d - If the answer to 3c is yes, in the last 3 years (April 1st 2019 to today):

• Which ethnic groups (defined in 3b) have reached their target quota
• How many times have these ethnic groups reached their target quota
• What dates were the target quotas reached
• When these target quotas were reached, were temporary hiring bans put in place (Yes or No)
• If Yes, what was the time duration these temporary hiring bans lasted for

4a - How many diversity and equality staff does the Scottish Government currently employ in each of the 4 UK Countries?

• England
• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• Wales

(If you are unable to breakdown by country, a total for the whole of the UK is fine)

4b - What is the current average salary per annum for your diversity and equality employees?

Response

1 - Please provide me your hiring process policy & procedures.

1. Please see attached Recruitment Policies & Procedures

2 - Please provide me your diversity/equality policy & procedure.

2.  The Equality Act 2010, places an expectation that equality considerations are mainstreamed into all policies and services. As a result, we do not have a stand-alone Diversity and Equalities policy and procedure.
Everyone should have equality of opportunity and work in an environment free from unfair discrimination and harassment, irrespective of irrelevant differences (some of which are protected by legislation).e

Our approach

Our approach is guided by the In the Service of Scotland vision and values, which sets a new standard for embedding inclusion into everything that we do. Our Employer Equality Outcomes are:
outcome 1: our workforce increases in diversity to reflect the general Scottish population by 2025 outcome 2 : foster an inclusive workforce culture and value the contribution of employees from all backgrounds The full range of actions we are taking and the progress we are making towards achieving our employer equality outcomes is set out in the Scottish Government Mainstreaming Equalities Report, which is published every two years.

Specific actions to drive change are set out in our race recruitment and retention action plan recruitment and retention action plan for disabled people socio-economic diversity strategic statement trans equality and inclusion policy
Everyone should understand their rights and responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 and our public sector equality duties.

The race and disability plans are published externally and can be found here:
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-race-recruitment-retention-action-plan-instigation-change/pages/16/ [Race] 
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/fairer-scotland-disabled-people-scottish-government-recruitment-retention-plan-disabled-people-2019/pages/5/ [Disability]

Please see attached the Scottish Government's Socio-Economic Diversity Strategy and the Trans Equality & Inclusion Policy.

3a - Do you have hiring quotas based on ethnic group? (Yes or No)

3a. No
 

3b - If yes, please breakdown your target quota percentage & the current percentage of staff employed for each of the following ethnic groups (as defined for England & Wales by Gov.UK) https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/ethnic-groups

• Asian or Asian British
• Black, Black British, Caribbean or African
• Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups
• White
• Other ethnic groups

3b. N/A

3c - If an ethnic group quota is reached, do you temporarily stop hiring people from that ethnic group? (Yes or No)

3c. N/A
 

4a - How many diversity and equality staff does the Scottish Government currently employ in each of the 4 UK Countries?

• England
• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• Wales

4a. The Scottish Government currently have 8 members of staff within the diversity and equality team and are all based in Scotland.

4b - What is the current average salary per annum for your diversity and equality employees?

4b. Average salary per annum for Diversity & Equality is £32,603.80

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.

FOI 202200316576 - Information released

File type

39 page PDF

File size

1.1 MB