T: 01224 285100
E
: xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxxx
David Fisher
1 March 2021
Dear Mr Fisher
REQUEST UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 (FOISA)
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).
Request & Response
Please see the attached response.
1. During the period of the current Chief Executives tenure please provide:
Geoff Ogle appointed to the post of Chief Executive on 01 April 2015.
a. The number of staff who have left the organisation.
The number of staff who have left Food Standards Scotland (FSS) is 85*. (This is permanent
employees and FTA’s only). We do not hold data on agency staff leavers.
*Of the 85 leavers, this included:
17 retirals
16 Fixed Term appointments which came to an end
8 who transferred to another government department
3 deaths in service
b. The average number of staff during this period, excluding the Chief Executive. This should be
calculated by adding the number of staff at the Chief Executive’s start date to the number of staff at the
date of calculation and dividing by two.
Headcount excluding CEO
Total Number of staff as at April 2015
149
Total Number of staff as at February 2021
273
Average Number of staff during tenure
211
c. The turnover percentage. This should be calculated by dividing 1a by 1b and multiplying by 100. This is
the industry standard method for calculating turnover.
Pilgrim House, Old Ford Road, Aberdeen, AB11 5RL
www.foodstandards.gov.scot
In relation to 1a and 1b:- staff should include any members of staff defined as ‘workers’ in terms of
230(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, including but not limited to casual workers or zero hours
workers.- The data should be provided as the number of individual people and not ful time equivalents.
85/211 x 100 = 40.28% (These figures related to permanent and FTA’s only). We do not hold
data on agency staff leavers.
2. In relation to number of staff who have left the organisation provided at 1a above, please provide the
total cost associated with those members of staff leaving including but not limited to:- recruitment costs,
including agency and advertisement costs- severance pay- redundancy pay- payments in lieu of untaken
statutory and contractual leave- Payments in lieu of notice- Payments in lieu of benefits in kind-
Additional pension contributions made on behalf of the staff- Compensation or negotiated settlements-
Ex gratia payments - legal fees
Compensation for
Comments
loss of Office
(Audited)
2020 – 2021
None to date
None to date (will be published in Annual report
and accounts at a later date).
2019 - 2020
None
FSS had no redundancy and other departure costs
in 2019/20 related to active staff members. Exit
costs are accounted for in full in the year of
departure. Ill health retirement costs were met by
the pension scheme and are not included. There
was one retirement on ill health grounds in
2019/20.
There was a lump sum payment of £13k made to a
member of staff whose employment came to an
end during the financial year 2019/20 due to a long
period of sickness absence. This payment was
made up of £4k for 5 weeks’ pay in lieu of notice
and £9k in respect of efficiency dismissal
notification as advised by My Civil Service Pension
Scheme (MCSPS).
2018 - 2019
None
FSS had no redundancy and other departure costs
in 2018/19 related to active staff members. Exit
costs are accounted for in full in the year of
departure. Ill health retirement costs were met by
the pension scheme and are not included. There
was one retirement on ill health grounds in
2018/19.
Pilgrim House, Old Ford Road, Aberdeen, AB11 5RL
www.foodstandards.gov.scot
2017 - 2018
None
FSS had no redundancy and other departure costs
in 2017/18 related to active staff members. Exit
costs are accounted for in full in the year of
departure. Ill health retirement costs were met by
the pension scheme and are not included. There
were no early retirements on ill health grounds in
2017/18.
2016 - 2017
None
FSS had no redundancy or other departure costs in
2016/17 related to active members of staff.
A final lump sum capital payment of £101k was
made in respect of a former FSA in Scotland
member of staff’s exit from the early departure
scheme in 2016/2017. When the provision for early
departure was re-valued at the end of 2015/16 this
lump sum was not included, as a result the
additional cost was fully accounted for in 2016/17.
2015 - 2016
None
FSS had no redundancy or other departure costs in
2015/2016. Ill health retirement costs were met by
the pension scheme and are not included. There
were no early retirements on ill health grounds in
2015/16.
The information in this table was taken from
FSS Annual Report and Accounts available on our
website
Recruitment/Advertising - we do not track recruitment/advertising costs as this is delivered
centrally from Scottish Government Resourcing as part of our Shared Service complement.
Your right to request a review
If you are unhappy with this response to your FOI request, you may ask us to carry out an
internal review of the response, by writing to Mr Geoff Ogle, Chief Executive, Food Standards
Scotland, 4th floor, Pilgrim House, Aberdeen AB11 5RL, email
xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxxx. Your
review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made
within 40 working days from the date when you received this letter. We will complete the review
and tell you the result, within 20 working days from the date when we receive your review
request.
If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the
Scottish Information Commissioner. More detailed information on your rights is available on the
Commissioner’s website at:
www.itspublicknowledge.info. Yours sincerely
Stuart Keith
Pilgrim House, Old Ford Road, Aberdeen, AB11 5RL
www.foodstandards.gov.scot
Openness & Correspondence Officer
Food Standards Scotland
Pilgrim House, Old Ford Road, Aberdeen, AB11 5RL
www.foodstandards.gov.scot