Scottish Government staff violent incident statistics: FOI release

Information requested

For the time period 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025 (or your nearest 12-month period), please provide the following:

1. Total number of violent incidents on your staff broken down by job title/category of worker.
2. A breakdown of the nature of the violent incident e.g., verbal, physical, threatening behaviour.
3. How many violent incidents have been reported under RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences) Regulations, with a breakdown by job title/category of worker.

Please could you break this information down into incidents involving female staff / male staff.

Violent incidents can include verbal abuse or threats including face to face; online and via telephone; physical attacks; threatening behaviour; racial abuse and sexual harassment/violence.

Response

We have interpreted your request to mean violent attacks against Scottish Government staff by a member of the public or a customer, whilst undertaking their duties. If we have misinterpreted your request, please let us know.

In your request, you have asked for information about Scottish Government staff. Our response covers permanent staff employed in Scottish Government Core Directorates, as outlined in Annex A. Requests for information about other agencies/bodies should be sent directly to them.

You have also requested the following information to be broken down by Job title/category of worker. Scottish Government staff are categorised by reference to specific grades. Details of those grades are on the Scottish Government Website.

​​​​​​​In Scottish Government, incidents of this manner can be reported by the member of staff or by their line manager, via either an accident reporting form or near miss card. All incidents are then recorded and retained in an electronic accident book by our Health & Safety Team. This process only captures formally reported incidents that are reported through this process. Details of any incidents that are reported and handled locally by line managers are not captured or retained in our H&S system.

​​​​​​​You have also requested that we break this information down into incidents involving female staff / male staff. We are unable to provide this as the H&S system used for recording of these incidents does not capture information on gender.

​​​​​​​In the period 01st April 2024 to 31st March 2025, there were 11 formally reported incidents relating to violence and aggression, involving 12 staff.

​​​​​​​None have involved physical attacks, racial abuse or sexual harassment / violence.

There were no RIDDOR reportable incidents involving violence and aggression during this period.

The grades of the staff members involved were as follows in the table below:

Grade of members of staff	Number of members of staff involved
A3	1
B1	3
B2	3
B3	4
C1	1

​​​​​​​Of those formally reported 11 incidents -

• One incident occurred whilst driving and relates to the concerning behaviour of another car driver who was a member of the public.
• One incident related to unacceptable customer behaviour during a meeting on SG premises.
• One incident involved unacceptable behaviour from a member of the public to two members of staff whilst carrying out an inspection.
• Two incidents related to unacceptable customers behaviour during phone calls.
• Six incidents related to unacceptable behaviour towards staff whilst carrying out inspections at customer premises.

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 202500479387 - Information Released - Annex A

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