Number of Scottish Government employees working outside of Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

1. As of 19 June 2025, or the most recent estimate, how many staff members were given permission to work outside Scotland, or who were working outside Scotland with this body’s knowledge?

2. In relation to Q1, in what country were they working in? Please provide as much data as possible for each employee.

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. We have interpreted your request to mean those working in Scottish Government core directorates. A list of directorates is available here - Scottish Government Directorates.

Roles based permanently 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. 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.

The data for staff who were employed to work at an overseas office or the London office as at 19 June 2025 is as follows:

Location	SG Employees
Scotland House, London	15
Scottish Government Office, China	1
Scottish Government Office, United States of America	2
Scottish Government Office, Canada	2
Scottish Government Office, Paris	2
Scottish Government Office, Copenhagen	2
Scotland House, Brussels	8
Scottish Government Office, Dublin	2
Scottish Government Office, Berlin	2

Hybrid working policy

With regard to all other roles within SG Core, they 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 requests seeking permission to work remotely outwith Scotland 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 UK 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 / Requests to work remotely from overseas on a short-term basis

Staff may be required by the Scottish Government to work 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.

In addition, within our hybrid working policy, staff can submit a request to their line manager 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 during evenings/ weekends. 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.

In both cases, permission to travel and work overseas for these short periods is provided by local level line management and is not recorded centrally so we are unable to readily or accurately provide the information that you have requested. In order to gather any relevant information, we would need to engage with all individual business areas across Scottish Government Core Directorates to ask them to provide information that is within the scope of your request. Therefore, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, 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 records held across all 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: How do I ask for information? | Scottish Information Commissioner.

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.