Scottish Government employment policies: FOI release

Information requested

Copies of the following:

• Annual leave policy
• Maternity leave policy
• Travel, subsistence and expenses policy (including limits for accommodation and subsistence)
• Pay policy
• Working outside UK / International remote working policy.

Response

In response to your request, please note the following employment policies in the table below have previously been published as part of past FOI requests, on that basis this is a formal notice under section 25(1) of FOISA that the information you have requested is otherwise accessible. I have included links to the previously published policy documents in the table.

Policy Documents submitted as part of previous FOI requests:

Policy Area	Policy Name	Previously Submitted FOI Number
Maternity leave	Maternity Leave Policy	202400432133
	Maternity Pay Policy	202400432133
Travel, Subsistence and Expenses	T&S Rules	202400422166
	Expense Type Limits	202400422166
Working outside UK / International remote working	Hybrid Working Terms and Conditions	202400440288

As per your request please see below the list and document numbers of the following employment policies covering the requested policy topic areas.

Topic Area	Document Number	Policy Name
Annual Leave	1	Annual Leave – a guide for Managers
	2	Annual Leave Entitlement
	3	Annual Leave for Flexible or Non-standard Working
	4	Annual Leave when Leaving the Scottish Government
	5	Payment for Untaken Leave
	6	Recall to Work During Annual Leave
	7	Sickness and Annual Leave
	8	Take Annual Leave when Suspended from Duty
Maternity Leave	9	Antenatal Care Appointments
	10	Returning to Work After Maternity Leave
Travel, Subsistence and Expenses	11	Travel & Subsistence Advances
	12	Travel & Subsistence Charge Card
Working outside UK / International remote working	13	International Travel

Please note that with regards to the International Travel Policy we have had to apply two exemptions under FOISA. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to your request. Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice our ability to carry out the effective conduct of public affairs. Providing details about the information you have requested into the public domain could, for example, subsequently be used by threat actors, building a picture of our security capability, to evade any controls we might or might not have in place. This could therefore enable them to target specific types of attack or data exfiltration methods and would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs.

In addition, an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the International Travel Policy because it contains personal data of a third party (i.e. names/contact details 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.

Please also note that in terms of pay policy, further information can be found on the Scottish Government website at: Public sector pay policy 2024 to 2025 - gov.scot.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500448493 - Information released - Annex

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