Public sector employment in Scotland: statistics for fourth quarter 2013

2. Public sector employment by devolved and reserved responsibility; headcount ( Table 3)

The devolved public sector covers those bodies which are the responsibility of the Scottish Government or Scottish Parliament. Whereas the reserved public sector in Scotland covers those bodies for which the UK Government has ministerial responsibility.

Figure 2: Make-up of the Scottish public sector, Q4 2013, headcount ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Changes in the devolved and reserved public sector are explored in more detail in sections 3 and 4 respectively.

Chart 3 below shows how the decrease of 13,800 seen for the overall public sector in Scotland is split between the devolved and reserved public sector. The majority of the reduction in reserved public sector was the result of the reclassification of Royal Mail Plc and Direct Line Group noted previously. Chart 3 also shows the impact that removing the public sector financial institutions from the series has on this change over the year.

Chart 3: Annual change (from Q4 2012 to Q4 2013) in public sector employment by devolved and reserved responsibility, headcount