Scottish Government employees requests to work remotely outside of Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

For each of the last five full financial years, please provide:

• The number of formal requests made by Scottish Government civil servants or employees to work remotely from outside Scotland.
• The number of such requests that were approved.
• For approved requests, please provide:
• - If possible, the country the individual requested to work from (e.g. France, USA, etc).
• - Whether the individual is/was a tax resident in Scotland or in another country.

If possible, please provide this information broken down by year.

Response

In order to provide information and relevant context in relation to your request, we have set out below an explanation of the range of circumstances in which Scottish Government civil servants may undertake work outside Scotland.

Roles based outwith Scotland

Scottish Government staff cannot work at a location outside of Scotland on a permanent basis unless it is a genuine requirement of their role. In that respect, there are instances where the Scottish Government workplace is not located in Scotland and we have employees who work permanently in Scottish Government workplaces in London and overseas. However, we do not consider these staff who work in one of these offices to be working remotely outside of Scotland as the role that they are employed to undertake is fully based in the applicable location. Staff members working in overseas offices have diplomatic status and as such there are no residency or tax implications and they continue to be subject to paying income tax in the UK. In these scenarios, the individual has not requested to work outside of Scotland but rather their role requires them to do so.

Hybrid working policy

With regard to all other roles, the Scottish Government does not have any roles that are specifically designated as remote or able to be undertaken by individuals living and working remotely outside Scotland. All such roles within SG Core are advertised with location details tied to a specific Scottish Government workplace or workplaces in Scotland. The Scottish Government (SG) has implemented a hybrid working policy which applies to the majority of these roles. That policy ensures that colleagues combine working from home with a regular presence in a workplace in Scotland (and for some roles, with stakeholders and in communities) each week and may vary from week to week depending on business need. As agreements on hybrid working are reached locally between the employee and their manager, they are not recorded centrally and, in any case, they are not made as formal remote working requests so are outwith the scope of your request.

It may be helpful to understand that in line with UK Civil Service recruitment principles, roles in the Scottish Government are open to any individual who meets the Civil Service Nationality requirements. In practice, this means that individuals living outwith Scotland elsewhere in the UK or overseas are able to apply for our roles and be selected for appointment if they are deemed to be the best candidate for the role in line with civil service fair and open recruitment principles and processes.

While there is an expectation that individuals who live elsewhere in the UK will relocate to live in Scotland if they are employed by us, this cannot be applied as a legal requirement unless there is an occupational reason to reside within a certain travelling distance of the workplace. Capacity to attend a specified Scottish Government work location as part of a hybrid working agreement is though a contractual requirement. Staff should be able to attend their Scottish Government work location as and when needed. If they choose to commute a longer distance to do so, that is a personal choice and, importantly, at their own expense. Individuals who live outside of the UK who apply and are selected for one of our roles are required to relocate as we do not support remote working from overseas on a permanent basis.

Travel on official business

Staff may be required by the Scottish Government to work remotely from outwith Scotland from time to time for short periods if they are required to travel on official business to a location elsewhere in the UK or overseas. For example, to accompany a Minister on an overseas visit or to attend meetings or conferences relevant to their role. However, such instances are a requirement of the role rather than as part of a formal request by the staff member to work remotely outwith Scotland so are outwith the scope of this request.

Requests to work remotely from overseas on a short-term basis

Within our hybrid working policy, staff can submit a request to their line manager (not recorded centrally) to work remotely from abroad for a period of up to 4 weeks in a 12 month period for personal reasons. For example, to visit or care for a relative who lives overseas in their non-working time. This is the only process through which a staff member can make a request to work remotely from overseas. Approval of such requests is subject to the individual meeting immigration and other conditions including that the individual agrees to meet any costs or liabilities that may arise from working from abroad. Permission to take Scottish Government devices overseas is also required. Tax codes do not change when working abroad for these brief periods.

Although a formal request to take SG devices abroad is required in these circumstances and that aspect of the process is handled and recorded centrally, the same process is required to be followed to take devices abroad for travel on official business (which as explained above is outwith the scope of your request). Unfortunately the data held by the Scottish Government in this regard does not record whether the request was for travel on official business or a formal request for personal reasons under the hybrid working policy. As such it is not possible to provide a breakdown of that information as it specifically relates to scope of your request (i.e. for instances where working remotely overseas has been requested by staff).

Therefore, whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the data that you have requested on the number of formal requests made by Scottish Government civil servants or employees to work remotely from outside Scotland. Consequently, we are also unable to provide information on the number of such requests that were approved or of the approved requests the country the individual requested to work from (e.g. France, USA, etc) or whether the individual is/was a tax resident in Scotland or in another country. Regarding requests for permanent remote working from overseas, as our policy does not allow this, there therefore have been no approved cases to do so.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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.