Transport Scotland legal services structure: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please provide a copy of legal services structure showing service structure, position in the organisation, reporting structure, team structure and number of solicitors and non-qualified officers (ie paralegals, legal assistants and other support officers).

2. Please provide details of professional staff numbers and their grades.

3. Please provide a copy of your grading scale.

4. Please confirm your legal services staffing budget.

5. What are the main areas of business undertaken by legal services?

6. Do you make use of or have subscriptions to legal research tools eg Linets, WestLaw, Practical Law and, if so, which ones?

7. Do you have a budget to meet the costs of solicitors annual CPD requirements? If so, what has the budget been for each of the last 3 financial years?

8. Do you meet the costs of solicitors practising certificates?

9. Do you issue customer satisfaction surveys? If so, how often, what do they measure and what are your results for each of the last 3 financial years – or calendar years if that is how you manage them?

10. Do you record and monitor complaints from third parties and/or from internal clients? If so, how do you record them, how many internal complaints in each of last 3 years and likewise for complaints from third parties in each of last 3 years?

11. Do you regularly externalise specific areas of legal business? If so, what areas? What was the expenditure on external legal advice from private practice legal firms for each of the last 3 years?

12. Do you externalise legal business on an ad hoc basis? If so, what types of business have the externalised and what was the cost associated with that for private practice legal firms for each of the last 3 years?

13. Do you have a data protection officer in post and does that post sit within or report to an officer in legal services?

14. Do you have a team within your organisation which deals specifically with FOI requests and/or SARs? Does that team sit within or is it supported by legal services?

15. Do you issue employee satisfaction surveys – WLC issue an annual employee satisfaction survey which seeks feedback on employee views on matters such as leadership, professional development, access to tools and training required to undertake their role? If such a survey is issued. what are the criterion measured and what were the results over the last 3 year?. Is the employee survey issued to all employees within the organisation? If so, how do the legal services results compare to the average results corporately?

16. Do you have structured engagement/communication methods with customers and partners? If so, what are they?