Scottish Government workforce and breaches of The Civil Service Code information: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
1. How many civil servants are employed now by the government, and on this day in each of the last four years?
2. How many disciplinary actions have been taken against Civil Servants for breaches of The Civil Service Code, in each of the last four years, with a breakdown per year?
Could you also disclose what actions were taken, i.e suspensions or firings?
Response
The number of Civil Servants employed by the Scottish Government is published as official statistics on a quarterly basis and is available here Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot. The published data includes a time series of information back to March 2012. The latest data available is for the quarter ending on 30th September 2025, showing an FTE of 8,873 and a headcount of 9,246 directly employed Civil Servants within the Scottish Government.
You also requested the number of disciplinary actions taken against Civil Servants for breaches of the Civil Service Code over the last four years, including the types of actions taken. Our response therefore covers permanent staff employed, or who were employed, in the Scottish Government Core Directors-General business areas, as outlined in Annex A.
We have previously published information on disciplinary cases relating to breaches of the Civil Service Code. This is available at Number of Civil Servants and breaches of The Civil Service Code: FOI release - gov.scot. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me and I will send you a paper copy.
Over the period 30 November 2023 to 17 December 2025, there were no disciplinary cases recorded as breaches of the Civil Service Code, based on the examples set out in the previously published response.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG