A severance policy for Scotland: consultation

About this consultation

Consultation is an essential part of the policy making process. It gives us the opportunity to get your opinion and expertise on a proposed area of work. You can find all Scottish Government forthcoming, open and closed consultations online at: http://gov.scot/publications.

Each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give us your views, either online, by email or by post. After a consultation is closed we publish all responses where we have been given permission to do so.

Responses are analysed and used as part of the policy making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. Responses to this consultation will help to inform whether reform of severance arrangements is required in the devolved public sector in Scotland

To inform this consultation and provide a picture of exit payment activity across the devolved public sector, Scottish Government officials sourced data using a number of different methods. One data source utilised a pre‑consultation data gathering exercise which sought details on severance schemes, number and cost of exits by salary band and length of service from a range of devolved public bodies, including Health bodies, Non‑Departmental Public Bodies, Police Scotland the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Further Education (college) sector. Separately, additional data was sourced from NHSScotland Annual Accounts and received from Audit Scotland in respect of local authorities.

The results of the data gathering exercise forms the basis for the tables and statistics referred to in Section 3. The response rate to the pre-consultation data gathering was 77 per cent of those public bodies surveyed. While not presenting a complete position, it does provide an indicative picture on exits in the devolved public sector in Scotland.

Deadline

The consultation was published on 31 March 2017 and closes at midnight on 23 June 2017.

How to respond

You can respond to this consultation online, by email or by post:

Respond online

To respond online please use the Scottish Government's Consultation Hub, Citizen Space at http://consult.scotland.gov.uk.

You can save and return to your response at any time while the consultation is open. But please ensure your response is submitted before the consultation closes at midnight on 23 June 2017. You will automatically be emailed a copy of your response after you submit it.

If you choose this method you will be directed to complete the Respondent Information Form.

The Respondent Information Form lets us know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public.

Respond by email

You can respond by email to: severance-policy-for-scotland@gov.scot.

If you respond by email, please ensure you complete the Respondent Information Form provided at Annex A and attach it alongside your response.

Respond by post

If you prefer you can also submit a written response in hard copy to:

If you respond by post, please ensure you complete the Respondent Information Form provided at Annex A and attach it alongside your response.

Next Steps

After the consultation has closed all the responses received will be analysed to help inform whether reform of severance arrangements is required and if so what shape the changes may take.

Where permission has been given, we will make all responses available to the public at https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/. The responses to the consultation and analysis will be published during summer 2017.

Enquiries and complaints

If you have a query about the consultation process or a complaint about how this consultation has been conducted you can send your query by email to: severance-policy-for-scotland@gov.scot or by hard copy to the address above.