Reports of disputes between officials: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02714
Date received: 3 November 2017
Date responded: 30 November 2017

Information requested

Details of any report of disputes between Scottish Government officials including any meetings, mediation, reasons for the dispute and resolutions. Information should include the number of disputes and mediations in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Response

You have requested information for Scottish Government staff. Our response therefore covers staff who are subject to Scottish Government Main and Scottish Government Marine terms and conditions of employment and Senior Civil Servants in the organisations listed in Annex A.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, I am unable to provide all of the information you have requested. An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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.

Managers in the Scottish Government are encouraged to deal with disputes at an early stage on an informal basis under the Fairness at Work Policy. There is no requirement to report informal action to HR and therefore no information is held centrally about informal disputes.

In 2014 there were fewer than 5 reports of disputes between Scottish Government officials.

In 2015 there were 7 reports of disputes between Scottish Government officials.

In 2016 there were fewer than 5 reports of disputes between Scottish Government officials.

The organisations covered by this response currently employ around 7500 people.

Annex A

Coverage of our response

Our response covers staff employed on Scottish Government Main and Scottish Government Marine terms and conditions of employment and Senior Civil Servants in following areas:

• Scottish Government Core Directorates
• Accountant in Bankruptcy
• Disclosure Scotland
• Education Scotland
• National Records of Scotland
• Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
• Scottish Housing Regulator
• Scottish Public Pensions Agency
• Student Awards Agency for Scotland
• Transport Scotland

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