"Contingent Workers" categories used within the Scottish Government: FOI release

Information requested

Scottish Government (SG) employs/contracts (whatever you wish to call it) Employees and Workers. This FOI relates solely to Workers.

SG in June 2025 had a category that it calls "Contingent Workers" or workers as Section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 calls them. In June 2025 it had 1049 "Contingent Workers" split into 7 different categories (Consultant, Contractor Staff, Interim Managers, Inward Secondment/SLA, Temp Agency Workers, other contingent workers and UK Fast Stream).

For each of the 7 categories of "Contingent Worker" that SG uses could I be provided with the following information:

1. What pension is offered to those in these groups? This should also include the % contribution from Scottish Government and % contribution from the individual.
2. What is the holiday entitlement offered to these groups?
3. What maternity benefits/conditions are offered to these groups?
4. What sickness benefits are offered to these groups?

Basically answer the 4 questions for each of the 7 categories of "Contingent Worker"/Worker.

5. I notice that SG states it does not employ people on zero hours contracts. Are the temporary agency workers employed on zero hours contracts or are they given minimum hour contracts? Or in effect are they Zero hours workers but SG just state they have no zero hour employees?
6. Could further clarity be given on the 551 Contractor sub category of "Contingent Worker" in June 2025? Ie what job areas are these split into?
7. Could further clarity be given on the 107 other contingent worker sub category of "Contingent Worker" in June 2025 Ie what job areas are these split into?

Response

Questions 1-4 – Pensions, Holiday, Maternity and Sickness Entitlements
Questions 1-4 of your original request have been addressed below. The response has been split by the seven categories of Contingent Worker you have listed in the request.

Consultant
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Consultants are engaged through employment agencies and remain employed by those organisations rather than by the Scottish Government.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

Contractor Staff
The Scottish Government does not hold this information, as Contractor staff are employed by their supplying agencies rather than by the Scottish Government, which has no direct employment relationship with them.

Terms and conditions of employment are determined by the supplying agency.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

Interim Managers
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Interim Managers are engaged through employment agencies and remain employed by those organisations rather than by the Scottish Government.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

Inward Secondment/SLA
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Individuals engaged on inward secondment or through a Service Level Agreement remain employed by their home organisation and continue to be covered by that organisation’s terms and conditions, rather than those of the Scottish Government.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

Temporary Agency Workers
The Scottish Government does not hold this information, as Temporary/Agency workers are employed by their supplying agencies rather than by the Scottish Government, which has no direct employment relationship with them.

Terms and conditions of employment are determined by the supplying agency.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

Other Contingent Workers
The Scottish Government does not hold this information because it has no direct employment relationship with contingent workers captured in this category.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

UK Fast Stream
The Scottish Government does not hold this information, as UK Fast Stream staff remain employed by UK Government for the duration of their programme, and do not transfer to the Scottish Government terms and conditions.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

Question 5 – Zero-Hours Contracts
The Scottish Government does not employ temporary agency workers and does not hold information on the employment contracts issued by agencies to their workers. Temporary agency workers are employed by their supplying agency, not by the Scottish Government, and the terms of those contracts, including whether they involve zero hours or minimum hours arrangements, are set by the agency.

Assignments offered through the Scottish Government are arranged on a fixed hours basis rather than an on call basis. Although the standard contracts used by some agencies allow for variable hours that are confirmed for each assignment, and in some cases allow for zero hours arrangements where a worker chooses that option, this is not how workers are supplied to the Scottish Government. For Scottish Government assignments, the hours are set and agreed in advance for every role.

Agencies that supply staff to the Scottish Government are required through our procurement arrangements to confirm compliance with Fair Work principles.

The Scottish Government statement that it does not employ staff on zero hours contracts relates to its directly employed workforce.

Questions 6 and 7 – Contingent Worker Use
Please find attached a breakdown of the 551 “Contractor” and 107 “Other Contingent Worker” roles recorded in June 2025. This has been provided down to Directorate level, which is what level of detail is held centrally. The Scottish Government does not hold a central record of the specific projects, tasks or workstreams supported by each individual, or the original reasons each worker was procured by their hiring manager. To locate and retrieve this information we would need to contact all relevant hiring managers and gather local records for every assignment. The estimated cost of doing this would exceed the £600 upper limit set out in Section 12 of FOISA, so we are not able to provide this information.

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 specify the subject matter you are interested in or restrict your request to one Directorate General or one Directorate, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would need to be carried out. 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: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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 202500489746 - Information Released - Annex

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