Employee information for the Scottish Government office in China: FOI release

Information requested

How many staff are employed by the Scottish Government in China?

A list of their salary brackets and how many are employed in each one?

Where are they based?

What nationality are they?

What level of UK Government security clearance do they have? (Please break this down by role if needed)

Please detail what, if any, training is provided to new staff members and how long each of these training topics takes to complete?

Response

The number of staff employed by the Scottish Government in China is available in the recently published International Strategy Annual Report: https://www.gov.scot/scotlands-international-strategy-annual-report-2024-25. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. However to assist you on this occasion, there is one member of staff employed by the Scottish Government in our China office. Country-based staff are employed by FCDO under their terms and conditions and staffing costs are reimbursed by the Scottish Government.

I can confirm that the member of staff employed by the Scottish Government is within the A-C Band salary scale. More information on pay grades can be found here: https://www.jobs.gov.scot/aboutus/financial-rewards. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the exact salary because an exemption under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party 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.

The Scottish Government Office in China is based at the British Embassy in Beijing.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the nationality of staff because an exemption under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party, 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.

We are unable to provide information on UK government clearance as an exemption under section s.31(1) of FOISA (national security and defence) applies. Under section 31(1), information is exempt information if exemption from disclosure is required for the purpose of safeguarding national security. While this exemption is subject to the public interest test, in order to preserve the integrity of UK Government national security vetting withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.

We are unable to provide information on training provided to staff as an exemption under section s.39(1) of FOISA (health, safety and the environment) applies. Under section 39(1), disclosure would, or would be likely to, endanger the physical or mental health or safety of an individual. While this exemption is subject to the public interest test, withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it, as the safety of individuals posted abroad would be compromised if we detailed the nature and extent of the training they undertake which is intended to mitigate potential security threats.

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.