Staff working on the Deposit Return Scheme: EIR release

Information requested

1. “How many civil servant staff are currently employed in the Deposit Return Scheme development Directorate?”
2. “The breakdown of those staff by grade, numbers at each grade and what each of those grades costs the Scottish Government?”
3. “How many professional advisers are currently employed in the Scottish Government?”
4. “The total wage bill of these advisers?”
5. “How many of those advisers are working on the Deposit Return Scheme?”

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

 

Response

Questions 1 & 2: 

The Deposit Return Scheme unit which is a part of the wider Scottish Government Directorate for Environment and Forestry consisted of 47 members of staff as of the date of your request. I have included a breakdown of said staff by grade and pay range below: 

Staff Grade	Pay range (£)	Number of staff at grade
Director	97,849 - 105,915	1
Deputy Director	81,893 - 85,201	2
C2	68,540 - 79,109	4
C1	52,355 - 65,276	10
B3	41,462 - 49,860	12
B2	33,520 - 38,329	10
B1	29,102 - 31,941	8

Question 3: 

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy. 

As of the date of your request there were 15 Special Advisers employed by the Scottish Government. 

Since the date of your request, further Special Advisers appointments have been made and a current list of Special Advisers and their responsibilities can be found here. 

Question 4: 

As of the date of your request the total projected cost of Special Advisers for the 2023- 24 financial year was £1,581,841. 

Since the date of your request, further Special Advisers appointments have been made and a current list of Special Advisers and their responsibilities can be found here. 

Cost figures for the financial years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 have previously been published on the Scottish Parliament website and can be found here. 

Question 5: 

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy. 

The Scottish Government publishes a list of current Special Advisers who provide advice across all portfolio areas in the Scottish Government which can be found here. 

The Deposit Return Scheme falls within the wider Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity portfolio area of which there is currently 1 Special Advisor assigned. 

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.