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Publication - Statistics

Public Sector Employment in Scotland - Statistics for 1st Quarter 2015

Published
17 June 2015
ISBN
9781785444784

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). This is a snapshot of employment as at March 2015. The publication includes information on public sector employment in Scotland with distinctions made for employment in devolved bodies and reserved bodies (located in Scotland).

View supporting documents Supporting documents

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

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Total Devolved Public Sector NHS6 Civil Service Police and Fire Services2 Further Education Colleges3,5 Other Public Bodies3 Local Government2,4,7 Public Corporations
Q1 1999 471,100 129,000 14,600 - 15,700 8,500 293,900 9,500
Q1 2009 528,700 158,200 17,200 - 16,900 15,700 314,100 6,600
Q1 2010 521,100 160,800 17,600 - 16,000 15,800 304,300 6,600
Q1 2011 506,200 156,900 17,200 - 16,500 15,000 294,200 6,300
Q1 2012 491,200 154,400 16,600 - 15,200 14,400 284,300 6,300
Q1 2013 487,800 156,500 16,600 - 13,900 15,200 278,700 6,800
Q1 2014 487,400 158,800 16,900 28,700 13,700 13,800 248,000 7,400
Q1 2015 489,700 160,700 17,400 28,400 14,000 14,000 248,300 6,900
Change on year to:
Q1 2015 2,300 2,000 500 -300 300 200 300 -600
% change on year:
Q1 2015 0.5% 1.2% 2.8% -1.0% 2.0% 1.2% 0.1% -7.7%

Notes:

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred; percentages are based on unrounded figures. "-" denotes blank entries.

2. Police and Fire Reform: From Q2 2013 Police and Fire Services have been reclassified as central government rather than local government (as their predecessors were). All police staff are employed by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) whether deployed with the SPA or with the Police Service of Scotland. Although the SPA is an 'Other Public Body' to avoid duplication and ensure comprehensive numbers are reported for the Police and Fire category, from Q2 2013 all police staff have been included within the Police and Fire category (and not in the Other Public Bodies category).

3. In October 2012 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. Although the SPA is an 'Other Public Body' to avoid duplication and ensure comprehensive numbers are reported for the Police and Fire category, from Q2 2013 all police staff have been included within the Police and Fire category (and not in the Other Public Bodies category).

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 FTE headcount staff transferred from Highland Council to NHS Highland as a result of the move to integrated health and social care services.

7. Scottish Borders Council headcount and FTE figures do not include Casual/Relief employees who were paid in the reference period. This means that these figures underestimate the true headcount and FTE for Scottish Borders Council. This will be resolved for the next PSE publication upon receipt of revised figures from Scottish Borders Council.

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.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment

Contact

Email: Claire Gordon

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