Information relating to the cost and the number of staff employed by Social Security Scotland: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

FOI Reference: FOI/202300361684
Date received: 14 June 2023
Date responded: 12 July 2023

Request

Request for Information 1:

How many staff Social Security Scotland has employed in each year up to the date of this FOI?

Request for Information 2:

Total staff costs for each year since it was formed up to the date of this FOI

Request for Information 3:

How much has the entire process of setting up Social Security Scotland and to run it cost to date? Breakdown by year and what the costs are/were?

Response to your request

Request for Information 1:

Some of this information is already available to you. We publish information on our staff headcount and this is available on our website, the most recent publication covers to the end of March 2023. The next publication, covering up to the end of June 2023 will be published in September 2023.

Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland statistics: publications

Staff headcount as of 14 June 2023 is detailed below:

[note 1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number

[note 2] This includes permanent, paid and unpaid parental leave (those on maternity, adoption, or shared parental leave), outward secondment and fixed term with competition (competition refers to competition for the position at recruitment, these are included within the permanent category for the purposes of publications)

[note 3] This includes fixed term without competition (competition refers to competition for the position at recruitment), fixed term student placement, and modern apprentice.

[note 1] – This includes consultants, contractor staff, interim managers, inward secondment, UK fast stream and short-term youth employment initiatives (student placements where paid by a stipend, rather than directly by the Social Security Scotland).

Request for Information 2:

Some of this information is already available to you. We publish information on our staff costs and this is available on our website, the most recent publications covers to the end of March 2022.

An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to some of the information requested. The breakdown of staff costs for 2022-2023 and 2023 to the date of your request is still to be audited and to date has not yet been published. Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice our ability to conduct financial management effectively which is based on our ability to analyse and discuss the cause of over or underspends and assess the risk around making different decisions to ensure financial balance and forecasting. This would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs in terms of the exemption.

We have assessed this request against the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However there is a greater public interest in protecting the processes for financial management and ensuring that the Scottish Government is able to conduct this effectively.

Request for Information 3:

Some of this information is already available to you.

For the set-up of Social Security Scotland, the relevant information is contained in the Social Security Programme Business Case. Page 8 of the executive summary may be most helpful in relation to your question - Social Security Programme Business Case

We publish information on our overall costs annually and this is available on our website in the links from our Annual Accounts contained in our answer to Request for Information 2. The most recent publication covers to the end of March 2022. The Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure shows our running costs for each of the respective financial years. The expenditures types are then broken down in notes 2 and 3 of the annual accounts..

An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to some of the information requested. The breakdown of costs for 2022-2023 and 2023 to the date of your request is still to be audited and to date has not yet been published. Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice our ability to conduct financial management effectively which is based on our ability to analyse and discuss the cause of over or underspends and assess the risk around making different decisions to ensure financial balance and forecasting. This would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs in terms of the exemption.

We have assessed this request against the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However there is a greater public interest in protecting the processes for financial management and ensuring that the Scottish Government is able to conduct this effectively.

Further information on the Scottish Budget for 2023-2024, including the Spending Plan for Social Security Scotland in 2023-2024 can be found here:

Scottish Budget: 2023-24 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

About FOI

Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing responses to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.