Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for fourth quarter 2013

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

The devolved public sector includes:

• Devolved Civil Service (see section 5);
• Local Government, covering 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 has risen by 500 (0.1%) over the year to Q4 2013, increasing from 485,100 in Q4 2012 to 485,600. Chart 4 shows the composition of the devolved public sector as at Q4 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 resulted in approximately 29,000 staff (headcount) moving to the central government category in Q2 2013. Also, from Q2 onwards the Scottish Police Authority ( SPA), which replaced the Scottish Police Services Authority ( SPSA) is included within the Police and Fire Services category rather than in the Other Public Bodies category.
• Staff transfers from Local Government to the NHS: NHS Highland and The Highland Council are working towards developing an integrated model for health and social care. Staff involved in the delivery of these core services started to transfer between the two organisations in June 2012.
• 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.

Chart 4: Breakdown of devolved public sector employment by category, headcount, Q4 2013

Over the year:

Employment in Scottish local government decreased by 30,700 (11.1%) to 247,000 in Q4 2013. However, the majority of this change was the result of the reclassification of Police and Fire services in Scotland from local government to central government.

Other public bodies saw a decrease of 900 (6.2%) over the year but this is largely due to the re-categorisation of the Scottish Police Authority, see point above.

Employment in further Education colleges decreased by 600 (4.0%) to 13,600 in Q4 2013

Employment in the NHS increased by 2,400 (1.5%) over the year, to 158,100 in Q4 2013. A detailed breakdown on this information by staffing group was published by ISD on the 25 ^th February 2014. http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/

The devolved civil service saw an increase of 300 (1.6%) in employment between Q4 2012 and Q4 2013. A large proportion of this was as a result of increased employment in the Scottish Prison Service, in preparation for the opening of a new prison.

Employment in public corporations grew by 700 (10.9%) over the year to Q4 2013.