PCS and FDA union correspondence regarding civil service working: FOI release

Information requested

The following information;

“1. Please provide all correspondence, unredacted, relating to the Scottish Government’s correspondence with the PCS union, and the FDA unions in relation to the hybrid working policy.

2. Please include all correspondence between unions and Scottish Government officials relating to the equality impact assessment undertaken on 40% office working.”

Response

As the scope is wide ranging, we are interpreting a timeline of 6 months covering from 21 April 2025 to 21 October 2025. This covers the period from when the next phase of hybrid working announcement was published on 8 May 2025.

For question 1 there are 59 files in relation to your ask “provide all correspondence, unredacted, relating to the Scottish Government’s correspondence with the PCS union and FDA unions in relation to the hybrid working policy”. Due to volume and size of each attachment I plan to send the files via several emails directly to the email address provided in your initial request.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, e.g. names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

For question 2, I have attached 4 files covering the information we hold which is relevant to your request covering “Please include all correspondence between unions and Scottish Government officials relating to the equality impact assessment undertaken on 40% office working.”

• FOI 202500490137 Part 2 - Doc 1 (R) - Trade Union Concerns - Response from Lesley Fraser - 10 APRIL 2025
• FOI 202500490137 Part 2 - Doc 1a (R) - Latest DRAFT EQIA - Hybrid Working Review March 2025_Final
• FOI 202500490137 Part 2 - Doc 1b (R) - Response to Allan Sampson 10 April 2025
• FOI 202500490137 Part 2 - Doc 2 (R) - Hybrid Working Summary Note 27 March & Draft EQIA for comment by 2 May 2025 – 17 APRIL 2025

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, e.g. names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

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FOI 202500490137 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

16.7 MB