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

3. Devolved public sector employment in Scotland; Headcount (Table 4)

The devolved public sector includes:

• Devolved Civil Service (section 5 has more detailed breakdowns for the devolved civil service);
• Local Government (which covers Scottish Local Authorities, Police and Fire Services (up to Q1 2013), Valuation Joint Boards and Regional Transport Partnerships);

• NHS in Scotland;
• Further Education Colleges;
• Devolved Public Corporations;
• Other Devolved Public Bodies (which covers Non-Departmental Bodies and other bodies).

The number of people employed in the devolved public sector decreased by 3,000 (0.6%), falling from 489,000 in Q2 2012 to 486,000. Chart 4 shows the make-up of the devolved public sector as at Q2 2013.

Interpreting Change Over Time in Devolved Public Sector

There have been a number of changes to the classification of organisations in the devolved public sector that make interpreting change over the year difficult. These include:

• Police and Fire Services moving from local to central government: This reclassification has resulted in approximately 29,000 staff (headcount) moving to the central government category. Also, from Q2 onwards the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), previously known as the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) is included within the Police and Fire Services category rather than in Other Public Bodies category.
• Staff transfers from Local Government to the NHS: Approximately 1,500 Staff have moved from the Highland Council to NHS Highland as part of the move towards integrated health and social care.
• In April 2013 the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) merged with three Further Education Institutes. The new organisation (Scotland's Rural College, SRUC) is classified as a public body (as SAC was previously). This has resulted in an approximately 500 headcount transfer from Further Education Colleges to Other Public Bodies.
• The Organising Committee for the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2014, is included in the Public Sector series from Q4 2012 onwards.

Chart 4: Breakdown of devolved public sector employment by category, Headcount, Q2 2013

Over the year:

The number of local government staff decreased by 34,100 (12.1%) to 247,900 in Q2 2013. However, the majority of this change was the result of the reclassification of Police and Fire services in Scotland noted above.

Employment in further Education colleges decreased by 900 (6.1%) to 13,600 in Q2 2013

Other public bodies saw a decrease of 600 (3.9%) over the year but this is largely due to the re-categorisation of the Scottish Police Authority, see notes above.

Employment in the NHS increased by 1,700 (1.1%) over the year, to 156,600 in Q2 2013. A detailed breakdown on this information by staffing group was published by ISD on the 27^th August 2013. http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/

Employment in public corporations rose by 600 (8.8%), a large part of this increase is a result of including the new Commonwealth Games organising committee, Glasgow 2014 from Q4 2012 onwards.