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For the significant national bodies that the Scottish government holds employee information for – our data shows no employees assigned on our HR management information system to more than one significant national body.

For the Executive Agencies that the Scottish Government holds employee information for, our data shows no employees are assigned on our HR management information system to more than one Executive Agency.

How public bodies are organised and structured depends on their status, function and the services they deliver. Public bodies determine the best way to structure their organisation to achieve their objectives, taking into consideration their own lines of accountability.

Public bodies do share services including estates, finance, digital and human resource, and the Scottish Government strongly encourages and supports this as part of public service reform programme. Further shared service development is a part of this programme. The Scottish Government is working with bodies in thematic clusters to identify further opportunities for efficiency and alignment, and empowering public bodies to deliver savings by working across the broader public sector.

Nordic Horizons has not received any funding from the Scottish Government since 2018.

The below table shows the distribution of FTE by grade, within Scottish Government Core, for the dates requested.

The Scottish Government has set out its commitment to giving people information about independence. A range of civil servants across the Scottish Government provide input to developing and communicating this information.

The Scottish Government will publish further material on independence to give the people of Scotland the information they need. No date for publication has yet been determined.

In December 2024, the Government’s proposed spending and tax plans for 2025 to 2026 were published here Scottish Budget - gov.scot. This includes budget provision for a range of activity related to the constitution which will be deployed across Ministerial priorities and commitments in this area.

The Scottish Budget announced 40% hospitality relief in 2025-26 for properties with rateable values up to and including £51,000, and capped at £110,000 per business.

Secondary legislation for this relief will be laid before the Scottish Parliament. It is the Scottish Government's intention that the relief will cover the same property uses as the 100% islands and remote areas hospitality relief in place for 2024-25 as set out in The Non-Domestic Rates (Islands and Remote Areas Hospitality Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, with the additional inclusion of music venues with a capacity of up to 1,500 and rateable values up to and including £51,000.

The Scottish Government does not hold responsibility for the recording and monitoring of staff grades and structures across the public sector, so we can only respond in relation to our own staffing.

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being used in a number of policy areas and for a diverse range of purposes. Generally these activities will make up a small proportion of a staff members’ daily duties, while AI may be one technology among many deployed for a particular solution, so we only have a small number of staff whose job role is primarily focused on the deployment of AI.

Recently published FOI release (Scottish Government staffing and salary statistics: FOI release - gov.scot) shares that in 2024 we had 6 data scientists, and a wide range of functions involved in the preparation of data, design of digital services, and support functions which could be related to the use or deployment of AI.