Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics for 1st Quarter 2012

5. Civil Service employment in Scotland; Headcount (Table 6, Table 7)

This section provides a summary of the civil service in Scotland.

The devolved civil service is made up of:

• Scottish Government Core Departments
• Scottish Government Agencies
• Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
• Non-Ministerial Departments

The reserved civil service is made up of:

• UK Government Departments
• Scotland Office

In Q1 2012 there were 46,400 people employed as civil servants in Scotland. This is made up of 16,500 (35.6%) people working in the devolved civil service and 29,900 (64.4%) working in UK government departments. The total number of civil servants has decreased by 9,000 (16.4%) over the year from Q1 2011. This large decrease was due to the inclusion of 6,700 temporary census field staff in Q1 2011.

Devolved Civil Service

The devolved civil service has decreased by 7,400 (30.9%) since Q1 2011. Chart 6 shows a breakdown of the devolved civil service in Scotland as at Q1 2012.

! Movement of staff between categories within the devolved civil service

When interpreting changes over time in the devolved civil service in Scotland it should be noted that due to organisational changes, staff have transferred between Scottish Government (SG) departments and agencies. This makes interpreting changes over time complicated.

The SG core departments now include staff who were previously classified as agency staff in 2008 and 2009.

The Scottish Courts Service (previously a SG agency) has been reclassified to a Non-Ministerial Department from 1 April 2010.

From 1 April 2011, National Archives for Scotland moved from being a Government Agency to form a new Non-Ministerial Department (National Records of Scotland) as part of a merger with GROS.

More detail about the above changes can be found in the background notes.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment/SourcesDef

SG Core

In Q1 2012, there were 5,200 people employed in SG core departments, representing 31.5% of the devolved civil service in Scotland. Over the year from Q1 2011, employment in SG core departments has decreased by 300 (4.9%).

SG Agencies

There were 6,700 people employed in Scottish Government agencies in Q1 2012. Employment in SG agencies has decreased by less than 50 people (0.3%) over the year to Q1 2011. From Q4 2011, NHS has responsibility for employing Healthcare staff within prisons. Previously, these people were employed directly by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), a SG Agency.

Non Ministerial Departments

Non Ministerial Departments (NMD) include the National Records of Scotland, Registers of Scotland, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and the Scottish Courts Service (SCS). In Q1 2012, there were 3,000 people employed in these NMDs. Over the year, employment in NMDs decreased by 6,900 (70%). In Q1 2011 9,900 people were employed in Non-Ministerial Departments. It should be noted this is significantly higher than usual as 6,700 of these were temporary census field staff.

Employment in the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service decreased by 100 (7.8%) to 1,700 over the year to Q1 2012.

Chart 6: Breakdown of devolved civil service employment, Scotland, Headcount, Q1 2012

Reserved Civil Service

The reserved civil service has decreased by 1,700 (5.4%), from 31,600 in Q1 2011 to 29,900 in Q1 2012.

This has been driven by a decrease in employment in the Department for Work and Pensions, down 800 (7.1%), over the year and a decrease in Ministry of Defence, down 900 (15.8%).

Chart 7 shows a breakdown of employment in the UK government departments as at Q1 2012.

Chart 7: Breakdown of reserved civil service employment, Scotland, Headcount, Q1 2012