Scottish Government staff sick pay calculations: FOI release

Information requested

1. Are individual's absences calculated using working days or calendar days for the purpose of monitoring against those thresholds?

2. If absences are recorded in working days, how is this reconciled with the use of calendar-day thresholds for entitlement?

3. Are the sick pay entitlement thresholds (6 months in 12 months, 12 months in 4 years) calculated using calendar days or working days - is it based on a 6 month period, or is it 182 working days (i.e. not 6 months at all)?

4. Does the Scottish Government apply any internal adjustment or conversion when calculating whether an employee has exhausted their entitlement to full or half sick pay? If so, please describe how this is done?

5. Is any guidance issued to managers or staff to clarify how absences should be counted and how entitlement is assessed, if yes, please release it?

6. Are the following hypothetical scenarios possible, if not then why?

Scenario 1

Rationale

An employee knows that full sick pay is limited to 183 calendar days in any rolling 12-month period.

But their sick leave is logged in working days only (i.e. Monday to Friday). So, they take advantage of the gap between working days and calendar days.

Practice:

• They take 180 working days of sick leave per year.
• This equals about 36 full working weeks (out of 52).
• They are off sick every Monday to Friday, but not on weekends.

So they’re off work 70% of the year, but because weekends don’t count in the system, this spreads their absences across a longer period.

Scenario 2 - Over two years:

By carefully spreading absences, they avoid ever breaching the calendar-day threshold in a 12 month rolling period.

Someone can be off significantly and maintain full pay in the following way:

Year	Sick Leave Pattern	Start Date	End Date	Working Days	Calendar Days	Full Pay Status
2023–24	Jan–May (Mon–Fri only)	02 Jan 2023	05 May 2023	90	124	Full Pay (Below 183)
2024–25	Sep–Dec (Mon–Fri only)	02 Sep 2024	03 Jan 2025	90	124	Full Pay (Below 183)
2025–26	Feb–Jun (Mon–Fri only)	03 Feb 2025	06 Jun 2025	90	124	Full Pay (Below 183)
2026–27	Oct–Feb (Mon–Fri only)	05 Oct 2026	05 Feb 2027	90	124	Full Pay (Below 183)

Response

Question 1 – Are individual's absences calculated using working days or calendar days for the purpose of monitoring against those thresholds?

Response - Individual sick absences are counted in calendar days for the purpose of measuring against the thresholds set out in guidance. For example, an employee who is absent on sick leave from Monday and returns to work the following Monday is counted as having had 7 days sick absence for the purposes of recording and calculating against the thresholds.

Question 2 – If absences are recorded in working days, how is this reconciled with the use of calendar-day thresholds for entitlement?

Response - Not applicable as calculations are based on calendar days.

Question 3 - Are the sick pay entitlement thresholds (6 months in 12 months, 12 months in 4 years) calculated using calendar days or working days - is it based on a 6 month period, or is it 182 working days (i.e. not 6 months at all)?

Response - The sick pay entitlement thresholds are calculated using calendar days.

Question 4 – Does the Scottish Government apply any internal adjustment or conversion when calculating whether an employee has exhausted their entitlement to full or half sick pay? If so, please describe how this is done?

Response – The calculation of entitlement to full or half sick pay is built into our digital HR system which automatically calculates entitlement based on assessing an employee’s sickness absence record over the relevant time periods. Certain adjustments are required in certain circumstances to comply with statutory and legal requirements when calculating an employee’s entitlement to sick pay. For example, sick absence related to pregnancy does not count towards any pay-related action. Sick absence related to disability may also be discounted when calculating an employee's entitlement to sick pay. This typically applies where a reasonable adjustment is required under legislation. This means sick absence for disability does not count towards any pay-related action until the Scottish Government has put in place the necessary reasonable adjustment.

Question 5 – Is any guidance issued to managers or staff to clarify how absences should be counted and how entitlement is assessed, if yes, please release it?

Response – As explained in our response to question 4, the calculation of absences and entitlement to sick pay is automated within our digital HR system. Guidance that is available via the staff intranet is provided in Annex A. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, some of the information within the document has been redacted. An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) has been applied appropriately. Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice our ability to carry out the effective conduct of public affairs. Providing details about the information you have requested into the public domain could, for example, subsequently be used by threat actors, building a picture of our security capability, to evade any controls we might or might not have in place. This could therefore enable them to target specific types of attack or data exfiltration methods and would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs.

Question 6 – You asked about specific hypothetical scenarios which are copied above.

Response - While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This is because we do not hold  information on hypothetical scenarios. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. However, in any case, we have already provided confirmation above that sick pay entitlements are calculated using calendar days. The relevant guidance on calculation of sick pay over a 12-month rolling period has also been provided in response to question 5.

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 202500469895 - Information released - Annex A

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