FOI/202500468068 · FOI · unclear
Scottish Government internal and external legal services: FOI release
Information requested
1. The number of FTE employees who work in the Scottish Government’s internal legal team, including all lawyers, solicitors, etc. in a) Financial Year 2022/23, b) Financial Year 2023/24, and c) Financial Year 2024/25.
2. The total amount spent by the Scottish Government on internal legal services, including the salaries of employees in the legal team, expenses, etc. in a) Financial Year 2022/23, b) Financial Year 2023/24, and c) Financial Year 2024/25.
3. The total amount spent by the Scottish Government on external legal services in a) Financial Year 2022/23, b) Financial Year 2023/24, and c) Financial Year 2024/25.
Response
Information provided relates to Scottish Government Core Directorates (see Annex A) only and the provided information is based on data as at 31 March of the requested financial years.
In regards to our response to question 1, we changed our method of recording job title information in October 2024. We now record the detail of the profession framework instead of job titles and the job title list for the previous years has been updated to align with staff now classified as ‘lawyers’ and ‘solicitors’. However, prior to October 2024 the job title information was a user entry field and not always completed accurately, making it more challenging to identify those in scope. This may give rise to differences to similar information published in response to previous FOIs.
We have interpreted question 2 to flow from question 1 and thus we have included the total amount spent on salaries, expenses, etc. of those employees identified to be in scope for question 1. We have interpreted ‘total amount spent […] on internal legal services, including the salaries of employees in the legal team, expenses, etc’ to mean all salary payments, allowances, Employers NI, Employers pension contributions and travel and subsistence expenses.
Please be advised that prior to the implementation of our new system in October 2024, we utilized two systems for processing expenses: iExpenses and CTM Expenses. The CTM expense reports are limited to a 24-month retention period and therefore, the available data only extends back to June 2023. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested in relation to some of the travel expenses between April 2022 and June 2023 because it was routinely destroyed, in accordance with our standard records management practice, before the date of your request.
Apr 2022 – Mar 2023 Apr 2023 – Mar 2024 Apr 2024 – Mar 2025 1. Number of internal legal team employees 225 233 220 2. Amount spent on salaries, expenses, etc. of employees in the legal team £18,073,563 £20,959,268 £21,215,878 3. Amount spent on external legal services £8,805,364 £10,054,475 £10,094,624
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested in relation to some of the travel expenses between April 2022 and June 2023 because it was routinely destroyed, in accordance with our standard records management practice, before the date of your request.