Hybrid working policy for Core Civil Servants meeting notes: FOI release

Information requested

The following information;

1. Please provide all meeting notes and of any internal discussions between Scottish government officials regarding the updated hybrid working policy for core civil servants.
2. Please also provide meeting notes between government officials and trade unions PCS and the FDA in relation to the policy referenced above.

For both of these requests, please include notes, transcripts and email or other internal messaging.

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.

1. Emails relating to meeting notes and any internal discussions between Scottish government officials regarding the updated hybrid working policy for core civil servants.

Part of you request is looking for meeting notes and emails relating the updated hybrid working policy. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. There will be large number of redactions will be needed to ensure that only appropriate and relevant information is released from documents and correspondence, in addition to the protecting staff identities.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You have requested “all meeting notes and of any internal discussions between Scottish government officials regarding the updated hybrid working policy for core civil servants” which is an extremely broad parameter to search.

Various emails have been released previously and are published on the Scottish Government website which include emails from the Executive Team regarding the updated hybrid policy. However to make sure you are provided with the exact information you may wish to narrow the scope of the request.

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.asp

2. Please see attached all information we hold relevant to your request.

• Document 1: REDACTED 12 June 2025 Overview Discussion Document - CSGU- SG Hybrid Working Policy
• Document 2: REDACTED - 16 June 2025 - Hybrid working draft
• Document 3: REDACTED - 23 July 2025 - TU HR Meeting with Rob M note
• Document 4: REDACTED - 12 August 2025 Hybrid Policy Draft 7 (Final)
• Document 5: REDACTED - 13 August 2025 Final draft Hybrid working policy
• Document 6: REDACTED - 15 October 2025 - Hybrid Working Programme - CSGU meeting - notes and actions
• Document 7: REDACTED - 15 October 2025 - Hybrid Working Programme - CSGU meeting

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.

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 202500490187 - Information Released - Annex

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