Volunteering days used by Social Security Scotland staff: FOI release

Information requested

Request for Information 1: How many civil service employee volunteering days are permitted to Social Security Scotland staff per year? (e.g. policy is 3 days for FT staff) [number]

Request for Information 2: How many civil service employee volunteering days were used across all Social Security Scotland departments/directorates in the financial year of 2024-25? [number]

Request for Information 3: What percentage of all available days are used? (e.g. 15% of volunteer days are used by Social Security Scotland staff) [percentage]

Request for Information 4: How many employees are offered employee volunteering days across all Social Security Scotland staff? [number]

Request for Information 5: What percentage is this of all Social Security Scotland employees? [percentage]

Response

Request for Information 1: Social Security Scotland colleagues are entitled to six days (42 hours) of paid special leave within a 12-month rolling period for volunteering activities.

Request for Information 2: In financial year 2024-2025, 428.6 volunteering days were used by Social Security Scotland colleagues.

Request for Information 3: While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not the information you have requested. This is because the number of available volunteering days directly links to our employee headcount, which fluctuates throughout the financial year. Calculating a definitive "total available days" for the entire year would require a complex calculation that would not produce a single, reliable figure.

However, based on this amount of employees at the end of Financial Year 2024-2025 as provided in Request for Information 4, the total number of available volunteering days would have been approximately 26,484, i.e., number of employees x number of available volunteering days per employee. Based on this estimate, the percentage of available days used was approximately 1.6%.

Please note that this is an estimate and not an official figure, as the actual number of available days would have varied each month.

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

Request for Information 4: As of the end of financial year 2024-2025, Social Security Scotland employed 4,414 people, all of whom are entitled to six days (42 hours) of paid special leave within a 12-month rolling period for volunteering activities.

Request for Information 5: This amounts to 100% of Social Security Scotland employees.

You may also be interested to know that Social Security Scotland is part of the Scottish Government’s Social Impact Pledge.

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.