Various regarding Civil Servants complaints/treatment: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01310
Date received: 3 May 2018
Date responded: 22 May 2018

Information requested

a. What proportion of civil servants in Scotland go through their entire careers at the same pay grade?

b. What proportion of civil servants in Scotland are (officially and proven) subject to lifelong Ostracism, Communication Bans, Note and File Only Orders?

c. What proportion of civil servants in Scotland complain, (rightly or wrongly) about their Appraisal Reports being tampered with?

d. What proportion of civil servants in Scotland report experiencing (investigated or uninvestigated, proven or unproven) Bias, Inequality of Hatecrime?

e. What proportion of civil servants in Scotland are burnt out, on the scrap heap, permanently mentally injured by the age of, say, fifty?

f. What proportion of civil servants in Scotland are sacked for alleged benevolence towards their own staff?

Response

This response covers staff subject to Scottish Government Main and Scottish Government Marine terms and conditions of employment and Senior Civil Servants in the organisations listed below:

• Scottish Government Core Directorates
• Accountant in Bankruptcy
• Disclosure Scotland
• Education Scotland
• National Records of Scotland
• Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
• Scottish Housing Regulator
• Scottish Public Pensions Agency
• Student Awards Agency for Scotland
• Transport Scotland

b) The aim of our Unacceptable Actions Policy /publications/unacceptable-actions-policy/ is to restrict unreasonable and unduly vexatious behaviour, whilst acting within the spirit of the policy to try and assist the people of Scotland (which may include ex civil servants) as best we can. Where we have terminated or restricted contact we will consider representations from an individual that something significant has occurred which will give us assurance that their behaviour has moderated sufficiently for us to lift restrictions. We will also carry out regular reviews of correspondence that has been filed without acknowledgement on fixated subjects. Therefore as we carry out reviews no one is subject to a life long ban. This is to ensure that we can provide the best service possible and behave fairly and reasonably with everyone.

c) To our knowledge there is no record of any employee of the Scottish Government in Scotland complaining, (rightly or wrongly) about their Appraisal Reports being tampered with.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have some of the information is explained below.

Reasons for not providing information

a) In this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is due to having to compile a report for previous and current civil servants throughout their working history with the Scottish Government over a long period of time. This would then need to be anaylsed as there has been grade restructuring within this time. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12. You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600.

d) This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

e) This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

f) The Scottish Government does not have the information that you have you have asked for as benevolence is not an example of misconduct. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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