FOI/202100240452 · FOI · partially withheld
Breakdown of staff and annual spend on Scottish Government international offices: FOI release
Information requested
A breakdown of the yearly totally spend on each of our international offices, including office maintenance, expenditure on events, travel and salaries. A breakdown of the number of staff on each Scottish Government pay band in each of these offices.
Response
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide a small amount of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party, specifically the salaries of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. The table below details staff headcount including the current annual budget allocation for the Scottish Government’s overseas offices, including salary costings, upkeep, day-today running and hospitality costs.
OFFICE BUDGET FOR (2021-22) STAFF HEADCOUNT STAFF PAY BANDS Beijing, China 550,000 4 1 x A-C Band 3 x Country Based Staff Berlin, Germany 555,000 3 1 x A-C Band 1 x Country Based Staff Brussels, Belgium 2,310,000 18* 1 x Director 1 x Deputy Director 6 x C Band 3 x B Band 7 x Country Based Staff Dublin, Ireland 596,000 3 2 x A-C Band 1 x Country Based Staff London, England 2,197,000 16 1 x Deputy Director 2 x C Band 9 x B Band 4 x A Band Ottawa, Canada 570,000 4 2 x A-C Band 2 x Country Based Staff Paris, France 556,000 3 2 x A-C Band 1 x Country Based Staff Washington DC, United States 805,000 4 2 x A-C Band 2 x Country Based Staff
* 2 of these posts are funded by a combination of Ministerial Portfolios due to the nature of their roles. **Country Based Staff are not on Scottish Government pay bandings, their salaries are based on their location. Staff salaries have been included in the total running costs of each office in the table above and staff pay bands have been provided for each office. Due to the small number of staff members in some of these offices we are unable to disclose the specific pay band. The table below includes details of the Scottish Governments pay banding from April 2021.
A3 A4 B1 B2 B3 BF C1 C2 C3 Max-3 26,995 31,266 39,312 31,008 49,420 64,698 74,779 Max-2 20,864 24,184 27,693 32,781 40,457 33,932 53,003 66,948 75,633 Max-1 21,948 24,907 28,736 34,297 42,616 35,888 56,684 69,855 76,486 Max 23,032 25,709 29,776 35,813 47,065 38,330 61,617 74,675 77,340
As part of our commitment to be an open and transparent government we do disclose salary details of senior civil servants, salary bands for those in our overseas offices are below.
Director of Brussels £95,930 - £103,495 Deputy Director of Brussels £77,340 - £83,233 Deputy Director – Head of Scotland House, London £77,340 - £83,233
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Enquiry Unit Email: ceu@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrews House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide a small amount of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party, specifically the salaries of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.
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