Notes & definitions

General notes

• Percentages are shown rounded to one decimal place. For this reason, columns or rows may not sum to 100%.

• Staff and applicants that have not made a selection (denoted “Unknown” in the accompanying tables) have not been included when calculating percentages fpr headcounts, recruitment or turnover. This is to allow for comparison against the demographic make-up of Scotland’s population. This may differ from the percentages seen in other publications.

• PNTS stands for “Prefer not to say”. For questions that are not mandatory, respondents have the option of selecting not to declare which group they belong to.

Explanation of shorthand

Some of the charts and tables in this publication contain shorthand instead of missing values.

• [c]: This symbol appears where data is missing due to suppression of confidential information. See the section on suppression below for more information.
• [x]: This symbol appears where data is not available. In this publication, it appears where comparator data for a particular characteristic has not been provided.

Bodies covered by this report

This publication provides diversity information for the following bodies:

• Scottish Government Core Directorates General:

  • Directorate General - Communities;
  • Directorate General - Corporate;
  • Directorate General - Economy;
  • Directorate General - Education and Justice;
  • Directorate General - Health and Social Care;
  • Directorate General - Net Zero;
  • Directorate General - Strategy and External Affairs; and
  • Directorate General - Scottish Exchequer.

• Scottish Government Exectuive Agencies:

  • Accountant in Bankruptcy;
  • Disclosure Scotland;
  • Education Scotland;
  • Scottish Public Pensions Agency;
  • Social Security Scotland;
  • Student Awards Agency for Scotland; and
  • Transport Scotland.

• Non-Ministerial Departments:

  • Food Standards Scotland;
  • National Record of Scotland;
  • Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator;
  • Revenue Scotland; and
  • Scottish Housing Regulator.

Management information of current and former staff (Oracle Cloud)

• Much of the data presented in this publication are taken from management information held on the Scottish Government’s HR system. When staff are appointed to the Scottish Government, a record is created on the HR system for that person. The HR system is an administrative database. As such, it is continually updated when workers join and leave the Scottish Government and personal details change. As with any large scale administration system, it may be subject to errors with data entry and processing and to short delays in processing changes to the data.

• The data presented in this publication are taken from “snapshots” of the data as it appears on the HR system at the end of a quarter. Therefore, there is a possibility that there may be some out of date data or errors presented in this publication, as the “snapshot” may be taken at a point before records are updated or corrected.

Data source changes from October 2024

• A new HR management system (Oracle Cloud) was introduced in the Scottish Government in October 2024. No diversity data was migrated from the outgoing system, resulting in a starting point of ‘declaration zero’ for diversity characteristics.

• While declaration rates remain low in the new system, and to ensure we are presenting the most complete and accurate picture of our workforce composition available, this publication uses new HR management system data where diversity characteristics have been declared (including prefer not to say declarations), and old HR management system data (if it exists) where there is no declaration in the new system.

• For the following characteristics there is a break in time series due to the change in data source, and to varying degrees, the questions asked, to ensure they better align with Scottish Government published guidance on collecting equality data.

  • Disability
  • Ethnic group
  • Marital status
  • Religion
  • Sexual orientation

• These question and system changes may impact on how staff respond and categorise themselves. Additionally, the introduction of a new system was a prompt for staff to update information that may have been out-of-date. These factors, along with the overall lower declaration rates in Oracle Cloud at present, increases the likelihood of differences in numbers/percentages between previous and current publications.

• Age and sex information continue to be collected during the onboarding process, and were therefore transferred across to Oracle Cloud from the outgoing HR system. As such, there is no break in the time series for these characteristics and the data remains complete.

• Information on trans status is available as HR data for the first time, whereas in previous publications it has only been possible to report on recruitment and People Survey data by trans status.

• Information on socio-economic background (SEB) is available as HR data for the first time, whereas in previous publications it has only been possible to report on recruitment and People Survey data by SEB.

Declaration rates

The diversity questions in Oracle Cloud (the Scottish Government’s HR portal and new recruitment portal), iCIMS (the Scottish Government’s old recruitment portal) and People Survey are not mandatory. Individuals have the option not to answer questions or to select “Prefer not to say”. For the purpose of calculating declaration rates, anyone who has answered the question is included, including a “Prefer not to say” response.

Legal sex and age (date of birth) are collected separately in Oracle Cloud outwith the diversity monitoring section on the system. This information is collected on a mandatory basis and, unlike the diversity monitoring questions, is used for purposes other than diversity monitoring and reporting only, e.g. security, pay and pensions. Data about legal sex and age was therefore transferred across from eHR (the Scottish Government’s previous HR portal).

Sex & gender

• Staff data on sex in Oracle Cloud uses legal sex as described above.

• Applicant data on sex in our recruitment system uses the sex and trans status question set included in the guidance for public bodies on the collection of data on sex and gender.

• People Survey data reports on gender rather than sex. Here, gender is derived from a combination of questions about sex assigned at birth and the free-text responses specifying current gender identity for respondents indicating that their sex assigned at birth does not match their current gender. The “Other” category includes all respondents indicating that their gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth and is unable to be categorised as either “Female” or “Male”.

Disability

• Individuals are categorised as “disabled” in Oracle Cloud, in our recruitment systems and in the Civil Service People Survey if they have one or more health conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last 12 months or more that limit them in their day-to-day life.

• Individuals were categorised as “disabled” in eHR (the Scottish Government’s previous HR system) if they indicated that they had one or more disabilities or health conditions.

Headcount & temporary promotion data

• The headcount of SG Core staff are the numbers of directly-employed paid staff as at 31 December 2024 according to eHR. Directly-employed staff consists of staff working on a permanent contract, fixed-term appointment or modern apprenticeship. Contractors, employment agency staff etc. are not included, nor are staff on an unpaid absences including an unpaid maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, an unpaid long-time sickness absence or a career break.

• Data on an individual’s trans status, disability status, ethnic group, marital status, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation and socio-economic background are self-reported on Oracle Cloud, while data on age and sex are gathered during the recruitment process.

• Pay bands include staff that are temporarily promoted to that pay band, e.g. as maternity cover.

• In some of the tables, a number of categories with small numbers have been grouped to reduce the need for suppression. The groupings used are as follows:

  • Ethnic group - the ethnic minority group consists of the Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Group; Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British; African, African Scottish or African British; Caribbean or Black; and Other Ethnic Group categories.
  • Religion - the Christian group consists of Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic and Other Christian. The Any other religion group consists of Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh and any other non-Christian religions.
  • Sexual orientation - the LGB+ group consists of individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or any other sexual orientation not including straight/heterosexual.

Recruitment data

• Recruitment data relates to all applications in 2024 coming through Scottish Government recruitment systems and includes only applications made for jobs advertised from the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication. This includes jobs that are advertised centrally but where successful applicants may be working in another Scottish Government body. Vacancies advertised by other Scottish Government bodies are not included.

• Applicants who applied for more than one requisition are counted once for each requisition. Multiple applications for a single requisition (e.g. if an application was withdrawn and resubmitted) count as a single entry. Each combination of requisitions and applicants is counted separately, as applicants may have reached different stages in different requisition. The data on diversity characteristics reflects the information disclosed during the most recent application made by that individual using the same account (hence applicant ID) for each application.

• Applicants not currently working for the Scottish Government cannot easily be separated from existing employees, as existing employees can apply for jobs advertised through the external portal.

• There are five stages to the recruitment system included in the charts above. They are as follows:

  1. Applied: An application has been submitted. This does not include applications that were partially completed or unfinished.
  2. Successful at sift: The initial sift determines whether the applicant is meets any eligibility requirements and evaluates their responses to questions. The applicant is then offered an interview if they pass the sift.
  3. Attended interview: The applicant was successful at the initial sift, was offered an interview and attended that interview.
  4. Offer extended: The applicant attended the interview they were offered and was offered the position they applied for. This does not include staff added to a waitlist who don’t get an offer at a later stage.
  5. Offer accepted: The applicant received a job offer and accepted it. This doesn’t always lead to a filled position, as the successful applicant may withdraw their acceptance at a later stage before their first day in post.

• The data includes some campaigns that have not been closed, as applications received near the end of 2024 may not have progressed completely through the recruitment process. As such, the numbers at each stage of the recruitment process should not be used to calculate the proportion of applicants that proceed between stages.

• In some of the tables, a number of categories with small numbers have been grouped to reduce suppression. The groupings used are as follows:

  • Ethnic group - the ethnic minority group consists of the Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Group; Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British; African, African Scottish or African British; Caribbean or Black; and Other Ethnic Group categories.
  • Religion - the Christian group consists of Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic and Other Christian. The Any other religion group consists of Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh and any other non-Christian religions.
  • Sexual orientation - the LGB+ group consists of individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or any other sexual orientation not including straight/heterosexual.

Turnover data

• Joiners are defined as staff who were not employed by the Scottish Government or its agencies, non-departmental public bodies or other bodies on 01 January 2024 and had a position in one of the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication on 31 December 2024.

• Leavers are defined as staff who move from a position in one of the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication on 01 January 2024 to not being employed by the Scottish Government or its agencies, non-departmental public bodies or other bodies on 31 December 2024.

• Data on the diversity of leavers is taken from the latest data as at 31 December 2024.

• Data on the diversity of joiners is taken from the latest data as at 31 December 2024. Many joiners have not completed their diversity data within their first year in post. As such, there is a higher rate of uncertainty on the breakdown of joiners by disability status, ethnic group, religion and sexual orientation than in the headcount or leavers data.

Sickness absence

• Average working days lost per staff year (AWDL) is defined as the total number of working days lost due to sickness absences over 2024 divided by the total number of staff years.

• A staff year takes into account part-time working and if a member of staff only worked part of a year. A full time member of staff in post for the whole year period is assigned a staff year of 1. If a part-time member of staff works half of the number of hours in a standard 35 hour week, their staff year would be 0.5. If that member of staff only worked half of the year period, (e.g. if they were recruited part way through the period) then their staff year would be halved further, to give a staff year of 0.25.

• Hospital appointments and preparations for outpatient treatment are not recorded as sickness absences.

• Only working days are counted, therefore calculations exclude weekends and public and privilege holidays from the period of sickness.

Promotions data

• Staff marked as being promoted are defined as staff who had a position in one of the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication on 01 January 2024 and had a position in one of the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication at a higher pay grade on 31 December 2024. This does not include staff who received a promotion in another Scottish Government body or were promoted from another Scottish Government body to one of the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication. It also does not count staff promoted temporarily to a higher grade, e.g. as maternity cover.

• Staff marked as not being promoted are defined as staff who had a position in one of the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication on 01 January 2024 and had a position in one of the Scottish Government bodies covered by this publication at the same pay grade on 31 December 2024. These don’t need to be the same position; a lateral move doesn’t count as a promotion here.

• Diversity data for staff by promotion status are taken from the latest data as at 01 January 2024. A small number of staff may fall into a different category at that stage than when they were promoted, e.g. an older age bracket or a change in disability status.

Average pay and pay gap

Average pay is calculated across the SG Main (SGM), SG Marine and SCS (Senior Civil Service) pay groups, which consists of:

• Core Directorates General of the Scottish Government:

  • Directorate General - Communities;
  • Directorate General - Corporate;
  • Directorate General - Economy;
  • Directorate General - Education and Justice;
  • Directorate General - Health and Social Care;
  • Directorate General - Net Zero;
  • Directorate General - Scottish Exchequer; and
  • Directorate General - Strategy and External Affairs.

• Agencies and Non-Ministerial Offices

  • Accountant in Bankruptcy;
  • Disclosure Scotland;
  • Education Scotland;
  • Food Standards Scotland;
  • National Records of Scotland;
  • Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator;
  • Revenue Scotland;
  • Scottish Fiscal Commission;
  • Scottish Housing Regulator;
  • Scottish Public Pensions Agency;
  • Social Security Scotland;
  • Student Awards Agency for Scotland; and
  • Transport Scotland.

Staff serving elsewhere on assignment, loan or secondment are regarded as being part of SGM, SG Marine or SCS except where provision has been agreed for other terms and conditions to apply.

Pay gap analysis is conducted for staff in post on 01 January 2025 as a snapshot, in line with Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance.

People Survey

• The annual Civil Service People Survey looks at civil servants’ attitudes to, and experience of working in government departments. More information, including data and reports at a UK-wide level, can be found on the Civil Service People Survey Hub.

Suppression

• Where there are fewer than 5 individuals with a given set of characteristics, that number or the corresponding percentage have been suppressed for confidentiality purposes, represented by [c] in that table or chart.

• We do not typically suppress cells where the underlying number is zero.

• Where a characteristic is not considered disclosive (e.g. “Prefer not to say” or “Unknown”), primary suppression is not usually performed.

• Secondary suppression is also performed to ensure suppressed figures can’t be recalculated.

• Where possible, groups have been merged to reduce suppression.

• For People Survey questions, groups with fewer than 10 respondents have been suppressed. If secondary suppression is required, we prioritise suppressing those who do not answer that question (denoted in the tables accompanying this publication as “Unknown”). These respondents are not included in the charts in this publication.

Significance

• Some figures are described as being significantly (i.e. \(p<0.05\)) or highly significantly (i.e. \(p<0.001\)) higher or lower than a comparison. This can be interpreted as a measure of how unlikely a change from the comparison could be explained by chance or random factors and is calculated via a logistic regression model.

• Statistically significant figures are highlighted by up (↑) or down (↓) arrows. Two arrows next to a single figure indicates a higher level of statistical significance.

• Figures may also be highlighted with a green or red background to indicate whether the change is favourable or unfavourable for that group. The higher level of significance is indicated by highlighting the data in dark green or dark red. This colour-coding is currently only present for People Survey results.

Comparators

• Scotland’s population breakdowns for age & sex have been taken from the 2023 mid-year population estimates, where the population is taken as individuals aged between 16 and 64 inclusive

• Scotland’s population breakdowns for disability status, ethnic group, religion, sexual orientation & trans status have been taken from Scotland’s Census 2022, where the population is taken as individuals aged between 16 and 64 inclusive.

• Scotland’s economically active population breakdown has been taken from the Annual Population Survey 2021 through the Scotland’s Labour Market: People, Places and Regions - Protected Characteristics report. As the age categories in our systems and the economically active population do not overlap, we have chosen not to include the economically active population breakdown by age here.

• No comparator data is currently available for socio-economic background.

Intersectional analysis

This publication does not contain any breakdowns by two or more protected characteristics simultaneously (e.g. headcount by age and sex). For most combinations of characteristics, one or more groups will be suppressed due to small numbers. There is also a greater risk of disclosure of sensitive information through differencing across years.