National Statistics Publication - Public Sector Employment in Scotland - Q2 2013

The statistics in this release are based on administrative records and surveys of individual public sector bodies carried out by the Scottish Government and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The publication includes information on public sector employment in Scotland with distinctions made for employment in devolved bodies and reserved bodies (located in Scotland).


Table 4: Total devolved public sector employment by sector; Scotland, Headcount

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Total Devolved Public Sector NHS Civil Service Police and Fire Services Further Education Colleges Other Public Bodies Local Government Public Corporations
Q2 1999 470,900 129,100 14,600 15,700 8,500 293,500 9,500
Q2 2007 524,900 152,700 16,700 16,700 13,800 318,100 6,800
Q2 2008 525,400 155,200 17,000 16,900 15,900 313,700 6,800
Q2 2009 522,400 159,300 17,500 16,900 16,200 306,300 6,300
Q2 2010 518,200 160,100 17,700 16,000 16,100 301,900 6,400
Q2 2011 499,300 155,300 17,500 15,900 15,100 289,000 6,400
Q2 2012 489,000 154,900 16,600 14,500 14,600 282,000 6,500
Q2 2013 486,000 156,600 16,700 30,200 13,600 14,000 247,900 7,000
Change on year to:
Q2 2013 -3,000 1,700 100 30,200 -900 -600 -34,100 600
% change on year:
Q2 2013 -0.6% 1.1% 0.8% n/a -6.1% -3.9% -12.1% 8.8%

Notes:

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred; percentages are based on unrounded figures.

2. Police and Fire Reform: Some of the change on year estimates will be affected by reclassification of organisations as a result of reforms to the police and fire services in Scotland. From Q2 2013 Police and Fire Services have been reclassified as central government rather than local government. This reclassification has had an impact on the staffing numbers in both these categories. Also, from Q2 2013 staffing levels for the Scottish Police Authority (previously Scottish Police Services Authority) are included within the Police and Fire Services category in the table above (previously included in other public bodies).

3. In April 2013 the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) merged with 3 colleges to form Scotland's Rural College. This new organisation is classified as a public body (as the SAC was). This has resulted in staffing levels moving from the Further Education to Other Public Bodies categories to reflect the merger of these organisations.

4. Public sector financial institutions include Northern Rock (classified to the public sector from Q4 2007), Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HBOS/Lloyds Banking Group plc (both classified to the public sector from Q4 2008) Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking. Those organisation classified as Public Sector Financial Institutions and SIC 64.

5. A number of local government staff have transferred to arms length organisations which are part of the private sector under National Accounts definitions. For example, staff transferred from Glasgow City Council to Cordia Limited Liability Partnership from 1 April 2009 thus explaining the decrease in local government employment between 2008 and 2009.

6. Information for further education colleges in Scotland is based on collected information from Q4 2010. The method used to create the back series is detailed in the background notes of this publication.

7. From Q4 2011, NHS has responsibility for employing Healthcare staff within prisons. Previously, these people were employed directly by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS). Also, In Q2 2012 1,491 & 1062.1 WTE headcount staff transferred from Highland Council to NHS Highland as a result of the move to integrated health and social care services.

8. Detailed tables showing a full time series of data - all quarters back to Q1 1999 - are available to download from the Public Sector Employment Websection: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment

Contact

Email: Chris Newson

Back to top