Measurement of staff performance used by Scottish Ministers: FOI release

Information requested

1. An account of the measures available to Scottish Ministers if they are unsatisfied with the performance, conduct, or capacity of officials.

2. For each of these measures, by year from 2015 to present, a count of the number of times they were used.

Response

In your request you have referred to Scottish Ministers. We have therefore interpreted your request to mean information about the measures available to Scottish Ministers, as the employer, to address concerns about performance, conduct or capacity across the organisation. If that interpretation is incorrect and your request is about the measures available should an individual Minister have a concern about a specific official, please let me know.

In relation to concerns about performance, our response to FOI/202400442201 provided information about our performance management policies. As such this is a formal notice under section 21(1) that this information is already publicly available under Scottish Government Publications.

You have also asked about the number of times this measure has been used. While it is our aim to provide information wherever possible, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. This is because under the Scottish Government’s performance management framework, where there are early performance concerns, line managers are encouraged to support employees through coaching, training and learning. There is no requirement to report early informal action to HR.

Where concerns about performance continue and formal action is taken, a member of staff may receive a partly effective or not effective appraisal marking. FOI/202400430314 provided information about the number of times a partly effective or not effective marking was given in the period 2014 to 2024. This is therefore formal notice under section 21(1) that this information is already publicly available. As the Scottish Government’s appraisal year runs from 1 April to 31 March, data about appraisal markings for the 2024/25 period is not yet available (it will not be available until after 31 March 2025).

In relation to concerns about conduct, the Scottish Government’s ‘Standards of Behaviour’ and ‘Discipline’ policies set out the procedures for addressing concerns. Our response to FOI/202500446732 provided the policies around disciplinary and conduct and this a formal notice under section 21(1) that this information is already publicly available under Scottish Government publications.

Where a concern about behaviour is raised, line managers are encouraged to deal with that as part of their day-to-day management responsibilities, at an early stage and on an informal basis where appropriate. There is no requirement to report informal action to HR and therefore this is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold information about informal action.

Where a concern relates to more serious misconduct, action would be taken under the Discipline Policy. Since 2015, there were the following formal disciplinary actions recorded:

Year	Number of formal disciplinary cases
2015	15
2016	22
2017	31
2018	21
2019	15
2020	10
2021	10
2022	6
2023	10
2024	10
2025	3

Please note, these figures include cases where a disciplinary investigation was carried out, but no further action was taken.

In relation to capacity, anyone with a concern about capacity should raise this with their line manager in the first instance. As there is no central record held about the number of times a concern has been raised about capacity, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Please note that the information provided above refers to staff within the core Director-General areas of the Scottish Government (see Annex A attached). Requests for information about other bodies/agencies should be sent directly to them.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500453638 - Information released - Annex A

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