Four-day week pilot meetings: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for details of all the meetings that ministers have had in relation to (a) the four-day week pilots, (b) the Centre for Workplace Transformation and (c) the Business Purpose Commission for Scotland, broken down by year since 2021/22 and a copy of both the agendas and the minutes for these meetings.

You also asked for details of how many civil servants have worked (i) full time or (ii) part time on (a) the four-day week pilots, (b) the Centre for Workplace Transformation and (c) the Business Purpose Commission for Scotland, broken down by year since 2021/22.

Response

The answers to your questions are detailed below:

It is possible that the Four Day Week Pilots will have been discussed at other ministerial meetings as part of wider policy discussions however two meetings were held specifically regarding the development of the four-day week pilot with the then Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, Kate Forbes. Notes of the discussion which took place on 07/07/21 are provided at Annex A. A further meeting took place on 10/03/22 and minutes are provided at Annex B. Agendas were not provided in advance however the purpose of the meeting on 07 July 2021 was to discuss the context and background to the four-day working week, the design and scope of the pilot as well as stakeholder views. The purpose of the meeting held on 10 March 2022 was to discuss how to progress a four-day week pilot in the public sector.

There were no specific ministerial meetings regarding the Centre for Workplace Transformation. One ministerial meeting was held with officials regarding the Business Purpose Commission to prepare for the formal launch of the Commission. Richard Lochhead, the then Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work attended the meeting virtually however no agendas or minutes were recorded. In addition to formally launching the Business Purpose Commission at the annual Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) forum on 19 November 2021, Mr Lochhead also gave a speech at an event to mark the release of the Business Purpose Commission report on 28 June 2022 in Edinburgh.

Please see the following table, which details the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) of staff who worked on each of the three policies broken down by financial year:

FY 21/22

	Four Day Week Pilots	Centre for Workplace Transformation	Business Purpose Commission
FTE	0.5	0.75	0.75

FY 22/23

	Four Day Week Pilots	Centre for Workplace Transformation	Business Purpose Commission
FTE	1.9	1.0	0.75

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section(s) 29(1)(a) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained in Annex C contained in this letter.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Annex A-C - 202300357706

File type

3 page PDF

File size

104.9 kB