FOI Release: Employee headcount benchmark between 1 January 2025 and now

Published: 13 August 2026
Freedom of information class: How we manage our resources

Information request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).


FOI reference: CW-2026-460
Date received: 17 July 2026
Date responded: 13 August 2026

Information requested:

Information pertaining to Registers of Scotland’s target or any other type of benchmark relating to employee headcount, whether directed by Scottish Government or decided internally.

  1. Any correspondence, including letters, e-mails, or app messages, from your SG sponsor team, Ministers, or other SG officials, directing your organisation to meet or not exceed a specified headcount, or to reduce headcount by a specified amount.
  1. Any correspondence similar to the above which does not specify a particular headcount but which provides other direction in terms of savings or efficiency expectations, e.g. to paybill.
  1. The employee headcount your organisation is aiming to meet or maintain at or by 1 April 2027, whether that number was set by SG or internally.
  1. Whether this number represents individuals or Full Time Equivalent.
  1. Whether this number is inclusive or exclusive of staff on fixed term contracts, secondees, agency workers, and workers of other irregular status.
  1. If available, a breakdown of this headcount by grade.

Response:

Please note that the figures provided below reflect the position at the time the information was extracted. These numbers are subject to ongoing review and may change as a result of organisational requirements, workforce planning, recruitment activity, or other operational considerations. The figures should therefore not be interpreted as a definitive indication of staffing levels.

RoS does not hold a target for employee headcount. Workforce planning assumptions are maintained on a Full Time Equivalent (FTE) basis, which reflects workforce capacity rather than the number of individual employees.

Our responses to your questions are below:

    1. RoS has not received any correspondence from Scottish Government sponsor teams, Ministers or officials directing employee headcount levels. As a Non-Ministerial Office in the Scottish Administration, RoS is not sponsored by the Scottish Government.  Our framework document is explicit (paragraph 66) that RoS is responsible for determining its organisational and management structure and the numbers and levels of staff.  As such RoS is not subject to direction from Ministers or SG officials on this matter.
    1. RoS has not received any correspondence from Scottish Government sponsor teams, Ministers or officials directing other savings or efficiency levels. The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland is responsible for the efficient and effective operation of RoS to deliver the statutory functions for which she is responsible, which are funded by fees paid for the services provided. The RoS framework document is explicit (paragraph 10) that the Keeper is not subject to the direction of Scottish Ministers in relation to the exercise of the Keeper’s statutory functions.
    1. RoS' current workforce planning assumption for 1 April 2027 is 1,277.31 Full Time Equivalent (FTE).
    1. The figure of 1,277.31 represents Full Time Equivalent (FTE) rather than a headcount of individual employees.
    1. The forecast FTE figure is inclusive of permanent employees, contingent workers and secondees.
    1. The grade breakdown is as follows:
Grade Sum of FTE
SEO 200.01
HEO356.13
AA and AO212.64
C176.15
C217.58
CW91.39
Dir4.81
EO316.6
Secondment2
Total1277.31

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If you have a question or query about FOI requests, you can email the information governance team at: FOI.Requests@ros.gov.uk.