Scottish Government categories of employment information: FOI release

Information requested

The Scottish Government will "employ" staff in a number of different categories of employment.

1. As of todays date (26/8/25) how many "Employees" do they have?

2. How many "Workers" do they have?

3. How many "self employed" people/contractors do they use?

4. Do they "employ" or indeed "engage" others for payment in a different method from the three categories mentioned above, if so what are the numbers and what is the engagement and how are they engaged?

5. For each of the categories (Employee, Worker, Self Employed, Other) what pension is offered to those in these groups? This should also include the % contribution from Scottish Government and % contribution from the individual.

6. For each of the categories (Employee, Worker, Self Employed, Other) what is the holiday entitlement offered to these groups?

7. For each of the categories (Employee, Worker, Self Employed, Other) what maternity benefits/conditions are offered to these groups?

8. For each of the categories (Employee, Worker, Self Employed, Other) what sickness benefits are offered to these groups? (statutory minimum etc)

9. Does the Scottish Government employ (Employee/Worker/Self Employed/Others) on zero hours contracts and if so how many? If they do could they advise what benefits these people receive regarding holiday, pension, maternity and sick pay.

Response

1,2, & 3. Information on people employed by the Scottish Government is in the public domain Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot

This will provide figures on permanent employees, contingent workers, consultants, secondments, interims etc with an index outlining the definitions.

4. All the types of workers are listed within the Scottish Government Workforce Information link above.

5. Scottish Government employees are civil servants and are members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme. The information requested on contribution rates is available from - Contribution rates - Civil Service Pension Scheme. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we’re not required to provide information that’s already reasonably accessible to you. However, if you don’t have internet access and can’t view the websites listed, please don’t hesitate to get in touch again — I’ll be happy to send you a paper copy.

6. Some of the information requested is available here - Scottish Government employment policies: FOI release - gov.scot. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we’re not required to provide information that’s already reasonably accessible to you. However, if you don’t have internet access and can’t view the websites listed, please don’t hesitate to get in touch again — I’ll be happy to send you a paper copy.

Employees in Marine Directorate are entitled to 175 days per annum. This reflects the nature of their role and working pattern. Employees in this group of staff work 22 days on duty and 20 days off duty. The 20 days off duty are taken as annual leave.

7. All of the information requested is available from- Scottish Government’s internal HR policies related to time off: FOI release - gov.scot. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we’re not required to provide information that’s already reasonably accessible to you. However, if you don’t have internet access and can’t view the websites listed, please don’t hesitate to get in touch again — I’ll be happy to send you a paper copy.

8. Please see attached a copy of our Sick Absence policy. 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.

9. There are no individuals employed on a zero hour contracts.

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 202500481940 - Information released - Document

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