Measurement of staff performance used by Scottish Ministers: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the following information covering the period 2021-25:

1. Details of the performance and productivity metrics employed to assess the effectiveness of government employees. This could include key performance indicators (KPIs), targets, or other criteria
used to evaluate staff across various departments.

2. Any reports, studies, or evaluations that highlight trends or patterns of underperformance among government employees or departments, including the identification of areas where performance or productivity has been deemed insufficient or below expectations.

3. Information on the Scottish Government’s expenditure on staff training and development programs, including the types of training provided and any evidence or evaluations demonstrating improvements in employee performance as a result of these initiatives.

4. Information on staff turnover rates across each department within the Scottish Government. This should include the reasons cited for resignations or terminations, as well as any measures that have been taken to address high turnover rates, if applicable.

 

Response

In relation to concerns about performance and productivity metrics, the Scottish Government (SG) want all colleagues to have the support they need to perform at their best and to develop professionally. We have previously provided an answer under FOI/202500453638, which contains information around performance management including the relevant policies. You can search for this at www.gov.scot under publications. As such this is a formal notice under section 21(1) to declare that this information is already publicly available under Scottish Government Publications.

Regarding your request for reports etc about underperformance and trends, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted.

Regarding your request for expenditure on staff training and development programmes, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. Under Section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

In relation to request regarding staff turnover rates, some of the information you have requested is attached in Annex A. The information has been collated from management information used for internal workforce monitoring. We do not hold further information on reasons for resignations. The turnover rates are based on those who have left SG core – they do not includes moves between units within the Scottish Government.

Some of the information you have requested for previous years is available from https://data.gov.scot under Workforce Diversity data, in particular https://data.gov.scot/workforce-diversity-2023/age.html#Turnover (Turnover) and https://data.gov.scot/workforce-diversity-2023/age.html#Performance (Performance).

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the
website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 202500457382 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

Excel document

File size

12.7 kB