Staffing and costs involved in coordinating work on the Independence Prospectus: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide the number of staff employed within the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Futures Division who were involved in coordinating work on the independence prospectus and related activity, broken down by headcount and pay grade, at each of the following dates:

• 31 March 2022
• 31 March 2023
• 31 March 2024
• 31 March 2025
• 30 June 2025

If possible, please also include the total salary cost at each of these dates.

Response

On 17 January 2025, the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Futures Division ended as a standalone division, and its activity has been merged into the wider Constitution Directorate. The Constitution Directorate will continue to take forward the varied forms of constitutional related work. This is explained in the following letter: Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture to the Convener of 5 March 2025

In terms of the other dates prior to 17 January 2025, when operational, there were no particular times in a year when Constitutional Futures Division (CFD) routinely recorded details of its number of staff and their grades. However, it was possible to provide details of CFD’s number of staff and their grades at the particular time a Freedom of Information (FoI) request was received. The Scottish Government answered a number of FoI requests over recent years giving details of the number of CFD staff and their grades on the date a FoI request was received. These previous FoI responses can be found at:

Cost of the Building a New Scotland series and the number of staff in the Constitutional Futures Division: FOI release - gov.scot
Preparatory work on referendum on Scottish independence: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Preparations for a second independence referendum: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Preparations and costs of Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Independence referendum and prospectus resources: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Constitutional Futures Division: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Proposed Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Staff on Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Staff working on the proposed independence prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Independence prospectus staffing structure: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Staffing information regarding independence work: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Staff working on Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Civil servants working to develop the proposed independence: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Regarding your query on salary costs, it may first of all be helpful to explain that the CFD formed at the end of 2019, and its work was paused in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic started. CFD staff were re-deployed to other business until the months following the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, when CFD’s work resumed. It is not possible to provide an annual salary figure over this period as CFD did not exist for a full financial year. Also, due to CFD not existing for a full financial year in 2024-2025, we cannot provide a figure for annual salary costs. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

The Scottish Government previously published details of CFD’s annual salary costs for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 financial years, and these can be found at the links below:

Information regarding the Independence Prospectus, Constitutional Futures Division and the Minister for Independence: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

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.