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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 6 July 2025
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Displaying 893 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

Are you saying that, if somebody refused to come to work, disciplinary action would be taken against them?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

Mr Griffin, that is about headcount. We have also found that there has been a significant increase in the number of top-grade civil servants—500 in the past three years. It is easy to say that your headcount is falling, but the wage bill is rising and the number of senior civil servants is rising significantly. For what reason is that number still rising?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

Do you have any data on the number of disciplinary cases that have been brought against civil servants who have not complied with the working week or have not responded to an informal arrangement with their line managers?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

I have two quick final points to ask about, if I may, convener. The number of sick days within the civil service has increased significantly to 77,500, which works out as nine days per full-time equivalent civil servant. Are you concerned about the apparent sick-note culture that is developing in the civil service?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

Shona Robison has said repeatedly that the decision to pay civil servants more and to have more of them is an “investment”—she used that word. Where has the return on that investment been? Where is the increased productivity in Scottish public services?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

As the convener alluded earlier, since devolution, the number of jobs in the public sector has grown by 19 per cent but there has been a 98 per cent increase in the civil service, and the headcount has increased by 40 per cent since 2019. Surely that cannot be down to additional devolved issues such as Social Security Scotland. Have you broken the numbers down to see where the real growth has taken place?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

But what is it now?

10:30  

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

Where it says that a staff member has

“the opportunity to informally deliver work from home”,

I am not entirely sure what that means. Could you recall civil servants back in five days a week under their present employment contracts?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

It is on a subject that I thought might come up earlier but that did not. We took evidence from several public bodies on the Scottish Government’s no compulsory redundancies policy. All of them said that, although they did not intend to use the option of compulsory redundancy routinely, they saw it as another tool in their toolkit. As we embark on reforming our public service and the civil service, what is your view on potentially adding that tool to your own toolkit, to ensure that you would have the whole panoply of options in front of you?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Public Administration in the Scottish Government

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Craig Hoy

What does it tell you about the culture in the civil service that people are saying that it is an infringement of their human rights to ask them to go to work?