Scottish Government employees working from home queries: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you supply the current and up-to-date working from home policy for Scottish Government employees?

2. How much money has the Scottish Government spent in each of the last three years paying for travel costs for staff to come into the office from their homes in England, with a breakdown of the costs per year?

3. How much money has the Scottish Government spent on work from home equipment in the last five years, with a breakdown per year and per item?

Response

Response to Question 1:

Please see attached the latest hybrid working and working from home policies/guidance for Scottish Government employees. They consist of:

• Q1 – Doc 1 – Hybrid Working
• Q1 – Doc 2 – Hybrid Working Terms and Conditions
• Q1 – Doc 3 – Working from home

Response to Question 2:

Please see the table below with the spend in each of the last three years for travel costs for staff to come into the office from their homes in England.

In line with the Scottish Government Travel and Subsistence policy, travel costs to an individual’s contractual Scottish Government workplace are regarded as commuting costs which are a personal responsibility and may not be claimed or reimbursed as expenses regardless of where the journey begins from.

However, civil servants who are transferred from another government department to the Scottish Government may be eligible to receive a payment in respect of excess fares incurred based on the difference between their previous commute and their new commute for a fixed duration of time. The payment is paid via payroll and is subject to deduction for income tax and national insurance. There are a small number of staff members who received travel costs (please see table below) under these excess fares arrangements following their transfer to the Scottish Government from a UK Department in England. On these occasions dispensation has been given to pay their travel for a set period of time only (3 years with the possibility for extension up to 5 years).

Financial Year	Annual Cost
2021 – 2022	£990.46*
2022 – 2023	£36,277.80
2023 - 2024	£39,790.12
2024 – 2025 (April 2024 – September 2024)	£12,299.04

* 2021 – 2022 – annual cost was lower for this year as payments were paused due to Covid lockdown.

Response to Question 3:

Please see attached document titled ‘Q3 – Doc 4 – Spend on Home Equipment 2019-2024’. This includes a breakdown per year and per item for the last five years. All the transactions in the attached have been itemised based on the description provided by the purchasing cardholder. The data has been broken down per financial year (i.e. April – March of each year). Please note the data held only goes back to July 2019, so it does not cover the full 2019/2020 financial year.

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FOI 202400440288 - Information Released - Annex

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