Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202400411023
Date received: 24 April 2024
Date responded: 23 May 2024
Information Requested
Request for information 1: How many external contractors were employed to work on Social Security Scotland projects in 2023-2024?
Request for information 2: How much of Social Security Scotland's budget was spent on hiring these contractors in 2023-2024 (In pounds and percentage, please.)
Request for information 3: How many of these contractors worked outside of Scotland, i.e. London or India based, in 2023-2024?
Request for information 4: How much did Social Security spend both directly and indirectly (e.g. through additional payments to all contracting companies such as IBM) on travel for contractors outside of Scotland to travel to Scottish offices?
Request for information 5: How did these contractors travel? I would like a breakdown of company car, train, plane and any other transport?
Response
We are interpreting your request as relating to individual interim contractors. Under Scottish Government frameworks we enter a contract with each individual worker.
Our service contracts with suppliers operate under statements of work and any resources provided are not individual interim workers.
Request for information 1:
Social Security Scotland appointed 92 individual interim contractors in 2023-2024.
Request for information 2:
£2,148,692.36 (less than 0.8% of the budget) was spent on individual interim contractors in 2023-2024.
Request for information 3:
All interim individual contractors are assigned to a base location and are required to attend at the office as required. Base locations for all the above contractors are in Scotland.
Request for information 4 and 5:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.
Travel and subsistence, if applicable, would be included in agreed contract rates which are defined within the Scottish Government’s rules.
Contractors are not reimbursed for travel to their base location and, as any applicable travel costs are invoiced by contractors as part of their overall rate, we do not hold information on the cost or mode of travel for contractors.
Contractors have no access to our fleet and no access to our corporate travel management system.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing its response to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.