Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much has been spent on agency staff in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools, in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority.
Data on how much each local authority spends on agency staff is not held or collected by the Scottish Government. It is the responsibility of local authorities to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including setting school budgets, on the basis of local needs and priorities, after fulfilling their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
Data on local authority expenditure on teachers is available from the Local Government Financial statistics data collection. The latest figures are available from LFR01 at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2023-24-workbooks/.
Teachers in Scotland are employed by local authorities, not agencies. This includes supply teachers and teachers on short term contracts.