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Management decisions on the detail of Scottish Government staff resourcing and divisional structures, to ensure the right capacity and capability to deliver Ministerial priorities, are primarily a matter for the Civil Service.

The cost of the Scottish Governments Directly employed workforce rose from £239M in 2015-16 to £623M in 2023-24 - An increase of 161%.

The Scottish government publish official workforce statistics on a quarterly basis.

The latest available data, which is for December 2024 and includes a times series back to March 2012 is available here Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot.

The following tables provide a breakdown of FTE staff by directorate for December 2024 and March 2016.

The Agenda for Change pay deal focuses on rewarding staff such as nurses, midwives, paramedics, porters and others for the dedication and effort they provide to NHS Scotland. Delivering a renewed and stronger NHS is a key commitment for the Scottish Government and at the heart of that are our hard-working healthcare staff who we want to ensure feel valued and rewarded.

The Scottish Government recognise that workforce and pay costs driven by a period of prolonged high inflation are now contributing to significant budget pressures across health and social care, the wider Scottish Government budget and the whole of the public sector. This Government has been clear that the extent of these challenges will not be addressed in a single year and we will continue to make the tough choices necessary to support sustainable public finances, whilst also seeking to minimise the impact on frontline services as far as possible.

The Scottish Government has not made an estimate of the number of barber shops linked to money laundering. Money laundering is investigated by Police Scotland working with partners including the National Crime Agency and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Historically, a range of factors, including newly devolved responsibilities such as establishing Social Security, EU Exit, and our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, are behind the growth in the workforce.

UK Civil Service grew its directly employed FTE by 7.4% between March 2022 and December 2024 in comparison to the Scottish Government permanent civil service growing by 5.6%.

In comparison to the UK Civil Service the growth in the equivalent grades (Grades 6 and 7) was the same as it was in the Scottish Government between 2020 and 2024 at 47%.

The Scottish Government has reduced its workforce in the last two financial years, by 0.4% in 2022-3 and 3% in 2023-24 and from March 2022 to December 2024, the total workforce has reduced by 4%. To achieve this it has prioritised the reduction of expensive contingent workers in making these reductions, in partnership with our Trade Unions. The number of contingent workers is now 46% lower than in March 2022.

Scottish Government workforce numbers are regularly and carefully reviewed to ensure efficient and effective delivery for the people of Scotland and recruitment controls remain in place. The Budget has set a commitment to continuing reductions in the workforce in this financial year.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, therefore, the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Schools do not generally fall into high-risk to persons from fire, due to their numbers of access and egress points, familiarity of occupants, regular training and drills, and ordinarily users are non-sleeping.

However, if there were concerns raised to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) regarding perceived high levels of risk to life from fire, the SFRS would undertake an urgent audit and, if necessary, could prohibit the use, or parts, of a school until the situation was satisfactorily rectified.

The latest published workforce statistics show 9,349 Staff within SG Core as at December 2024 Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot. 85 staff of the total 9,349 have a home working contract.

However, in a number of cases this may be because of a reasonable adjustment in accordance with equalities legislation, or for other role-related reasons. In either case, we do not record what proportion of time is spent working exclusively from home and in practice most staff with homeworking contracts will likely still attend an SG workplace from time to time or work with stakeholders in communities.

This response relates to Scottish Government Core workforce.

Historically, a range of factors, including newly devolved responsibilities such as establishing Social Security, EU Exit, and our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, are behind the growth in the workforce. Like many organisations, the Scottish Government has also needed to respond to the cost of living crisis that has led to increases in pay across the labour market.

The Scottish Government is proactively addressing the need to control workforce size to remain fiscally sustainable.

The Scottish Government has reduced its total workforce by 4% from March 2022 to December 2024. It has achieved this through recruitment controls and prioritised the reduction of expensive contingent workers in making these reductions, in partnership with our Trade Unions. The number of contingent workers is now 46% lower than in March 2022.

Scottish Government workforce numbers are regularly and carefully reviewed to ensure efficient and effective delivery for the people of Scotland and recruitment controls remain in place. The Budget has set a commitment to continuing to reduce the workforce in this financial year.