Additional staff working on Common Agricultural Policy payments: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01634
Date received: 10 July 2017
Date responded: 10 August 2017

Information requested

• The number of additional staff employed by the Scottish Government to work on Common Agricultural Policy payments in a) 2016 and b)2017. If you could please also provide the total number of staff working on this, that would be helpful.

• The cost of hiring additional staff to work on Common Agricultural Policy payments in a)2016 and b)2017.

• The amount of overtime worked by staff dealing with Common Agricultural Policy payments in a)2016 and b)2017.

• The total cost of overtime worked by staff dealing with Common Agricultural Policy payments in a)2016 and b)2017.

Response

I enclose a copy of the information you requested at the end of this letter. Please note that the figures in each case are totals, across the Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID) and the Information Systems Division (ISD). Staff in these Divisions work on a range of activities, which are more or less related to the task of making payments (application- 2 -processing, validation, inspections, field mapping, monitoring, administering, supporting the IT, and so on). A precise breakdown by activity is not available.

The additional staffing figures thus include all additional staff required to allow these two Divisions to deliver the new CAP programme in the two years in question. Please note that staffing figures include figures for identified vacancies and thus reflect budgeted rather than actual costs, which are likely to be lower. Again, it should not be assumed that the figures for the overall size of these Divisions in 2014-15 represent all and only staff working on facilitating CAP payments, but it gives you an approximate point of comparison.

About FOI

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FOI_17_01634 Staff budget increases - information.pdf

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