Breakdown of staff numbers in Scotland House, Brussels: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many Scot Gov staff work at the Brussels embassy? Breakdown of their roles.

2. How many staff overall work at the Brussels embassy and if they are not Scot Gov staff who pays for them?

3. How much has been spent on staff at the Brussels Embassy? Breakdown of this.

Response

1. The Scottish Government has an international office in Brussels (“Scotland House Brussels”) which is staffed by both Scottish Government Civil Servants and country based staff. There are 17 members of staff including SCS- Director – 1, SCS – Deputy Director -1, C2 Policy Advisors – 2, C1 Policy Advisors – 4, B2 Policy Advisors – 3.

In addition there are 6 country-based posts that are advertised and recruited locally through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The role profiles are involved in finance, administration and communication and engagement support.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, may have the information you are looking for in relation to locally employed staff. You can contact them at information.rights@fcdo.gov.uk.

2. The number of Scottish Government Staff working at Scotland House Brussels is detailed in my response above. Scottish Government staff work in partnership with colleagues from Scotland Europa at Scotland House Brussels. More information about Scotland Europa can be found here.

3. The budget for the Scottish Government’s office in Brussels in Financial Year 2022-2023 is £2,497,000. This covers staffing, running costs and all activities of the Scottish Government’s office in Brussels as well as a wider programme of programme of policy, trade and cultural engagements.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide a small amount of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party, specifically the salaries of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

As part of our commitment to be an open and transparent government we do disclose salary details of senior civil servants, and the pay range for both the Director and Deputy Director in Scotland House Brussels is noted below.

Director of Brussels	£95,930 - £103,495
Deputy Director of Brussels	£77,340 - £83,233

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