Statistics on civil servant contractual arrangements to work from home: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202400430184

Per government department, please tell me how many civil servants are earning more than £100,000 a year.

Per government department, please tell me how many civil servants are currently only home working.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for Question 2, FOI
202400430184.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.

With reference to the interpretation of 'per government department' as relating to Scottish Government Core Directorates, I have concluded that this original interpretation was reasonable. The Scottish Government is made up of a series of Directorates and Director General groups, rather than individual government departments (as is the case in UK Government).

Inclusion of hybrid working information

With reference to the inclusion of information regarding the Scottish Government's hybrid working policy, I have concluded that although this information was not specifically requested, it was important context which explains our general approach to hybrid working and why we do not centrally hold up-todate information on homeworking arrangements.

Exemptions applied

With reference to the decision to provide a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA, that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. I have concluded that an exemption still applies, but that the relevant exemption is section 12 of FOISA. While it is accurate that we do not hold this information centrally, individual line managers will be aware of any locally agreed arrangements regarding homeworking, as part of an adjustment under equality legislation.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information, we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. 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. For example, you could restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at:
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

Central record of homeworking contracts

Finally, as part of this review, I have confirmed with corporate analytical colleagues that we have 94 colleagues as at September 2024, who are recorded as having a contractual arrangement to work from home (1.01% of the Scottish Government Core headcount as at June 2024). We no longer place staff on contractual homeworking arrangements, as this can be managed locally under the reasonable adjustment policy. As these are legacy arrangements, put in place for a range of reasons relating to the nature of the role, or individual circumstances (and they may still be attending an SG workplace in a hybrid arrangement), I am satisfied that the data is outdated. Given we no longer offer contractual homeworking arrangements for these reasons, I uphold the decision to not release this information as it would not be an accurate release of the number of staff working only at home.

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.