Using our resources to support the delivery of our goals
Our people
Staff relations and engagement
The Commission relies on the dedication, expertise and hard work of its staff. Together, teams work to deliver a high-quality service to voters and stakeholders, while also striving to fulfil the strategic objectives set out in the Corporate Plan.
This work relies on constructive relationships across the Commission, with the Executive Team, and the Board.
A staff engagement group, made up of representatives from all parts of the organisation, meets regularly to discuss corporate issues and Commission culture to seek input and views from colleagues. This is supported by regular cross-team project meetings, team meetings, and line management check ins, to ensure that views and voices are being heard.
This year the Commission launched a new Culture Charter, created by staff, and a new Dignity and Respect Policy. We also rolled out bullying and harassment training. Staff Awards were also held to recognise and celebrate the efforts and achievements of those working within the organisation.
The Commission has an active union, which plays an important role in the dialogue between staff and management. There was an official trade dispute in relation to pay settlements this year, but dialogue and engagement remained constructive.
We completed our latest staff survey in December 2022 and 86% of employees responded. Our employee engagement score was 66% (down marginally from 67% in 2021). Our scores compared most positively to the Civil Service benchmark (2021) in areas such as our people agreeing that:
- They have the opportunity to contribute views before decisions are made that affect them (at 60%, 21% points higher than the benchmark)
- They feel proud when they tell others they work for the Commission (at 81%, 18% points higher than the benchmark)
The areas where we compared least positively to the Civil Service benchmark, and we need to improve, include people agreeing that:
- There are opportunities to progress in their career at the Commission (at 23%, 36% points lower than the benchmark)
- They have the IT systems and equipment needed to do their job effectively (at 48%, 24% points lower than the benchmark)
Performance indicators
Indicator | Target | 2022-23 |
---|---|---|
Maintained staff wellbeing score in staff survey | 77% | 77% |
Maintained staff engagement score in staff survey | 67% | 66% |
Occupational health and safety
We review our health and safety policy annually. We also have procedures, guidance and risk assessments in place to cover our core activities. A health and safety group oversees our arrangements. They meet regularly and report to our senior leadership group. However, primary responsibility for health and safety sits with people managers.
We initiate independent health and safety audits of our premises each year, which involves inspecting working environments and reviewing safety management systems. These audits tell us if our arrangements are suitable and highlight any improvements we need to make. In 2022/23 we:
- Installed LED lighting at our London office, providing a feeling of natural light
- Conducted fixed wire testing at our offices in London and Cardiff
- Supported homeworkers and office-based staff with equipment requests, such as workstation and orthopaedic chairs and back support cushions
- Conducted portable appliance testing at all of our offices
- Continued enhanced cleaning regimes, including provision of hand sanitisers and anti-bacterial wipes.
Our environmental impact
We recognise that delivering our activities has an impact on the environment and we continue to work towards minimising this impact.
We lease office space in four cities from a combination of public and private sector property owners. We do not have direct control of utility supplier and waste disposal targets and management at our premises. For a number of our offices, the property owner manages energy and water consumption as well as waste disposal and recovers costs through a consolidated service charge.
Offices in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast have relocated to smaller, more environmentally efficient premises in the last 10 years. We completed the renewal of the lease for our London office in 2020.
Performance indicators
Indicators | Target | 2022-23 |
---|---|---|
Reduced environmental impact of energy consumption | N/A – To be developed when the UK Government publishes its target | N/A |
Sustainability report
The Commission is committed to supporting the governments and the wider electoral community. We will adopt a strategy and implementation plan which meets environmental standards required of our electoral system. Internally, we recognise the importance of sustainability as an organisation.
During 2023/24 we will start the process of developing a full environmental and sustainability review. Our aim is that this work will help us to report on our sustainability strategy in more detail in the coming years and to measure progress. More detail will be available in the next Annual Report & Accounts, and will take into account our work across all nations in the UK and with devolved administrations.
Initiatives are in place to help minimise environmental impact
- reduced printed resources provided to electoral administrators and other groups, focusing on electronic provision wherever possible
- encouraged the use of video and teleconferencing to avoid unnecessary travel with consequential CO2 emissions
- operated recycling facilities in all our offices
London Office
Performance commentary on emissions
We aim to decrease our fossil fuel consumption year on year, an ongoing effect of the property owner’ s introduction of measures to reduce levels of electricity consumption, including lower ‘out of hours’ operation of plant and machinery and the introduction of energy-efficient lighting. Due to being in rented accommodation, we are restricted in our plans to cut emissions as these are primarily driven by our landlord.
Emissions report
Non-financial indictors (CO2e in tonnes) | 2022-23 | 2050 target | 2017-18 (Baseline) |
---|---|---|---|
Total gross emissions | 125 | 175 | 235 |
Gross emissions - fossil fuel consumption | 99 | 149 | 198 |
Gross emissions - Travel | 26 | 26 | 37 |
Related energy consumption (Kwh) | 2022-23 | 2050 target | 2017-18 (Baseline) |
---|---|---|---|
Electricity | 375,818 | 365,708 | 487,611 |
Gas | 188,854 | 158,993 | 211,990 |
Financial indicators | 2022-23 | 2050 target | 2017-2018 (Baseline) |
---|---|---|---|
Expenditure on Energy | Not available | Not available | Not available |
Expenditure on Travel | 75,527 | 85,389 | 113,852 |
We have reduced out of hours working since 2017-18 to help cut our emissions. Since the introduction of hybrid working, we have reduced our travel and energy consumption within the office.
In February 2023, a project to install LED lighting at our London office was completed. The impact on the energy consumption was immediate and resulted in a 43% reduction during February and March 2023, when compared with the corresponding 2-month period in 2022.
Waste report
General waste and recycling figures are based on a proportion of total building waste and are not directly controllable by us. Confidential waste disposal for the organisation is handled separately from that for other building occupants. We shred the confidential waste we generate on-site before it is recycled into low-grade paper.
The general and recycled waste is based on a proportion of total building waste. All general waste produced in the building, including that generated by us, is sent to a nearby energy from waste plant, instead of landfill sites.
We have reduced our use of paper since 2017-18 to help cut our waste. Since the introduction of hybrid working, we have further reduced our paper use significantly.
Waste
Non financial indicators (tonnes) | 2022-23 | 2017-18 (Baseline) |
---|---|---|
Total waste | 5.08 | 10.01 |
Non hazardous waste: Confidential | 1.00 | 2.81 |
Non hazardous waste: General waste (Including recycled) | 4.08 | 7.26 |
Quantity of paper purchased (reams)
2022-23 | 2017-18 (Baseline) |
---|---|
105 | 650 |
Financial indicators |
2022-23 | 2017-18 (baseline) |
---|---|---|
Total disposal cost | Not available | Not available |
Confidential | £1,972 | £1,134 |
General waste (incl. recycled) | Not available | Not available |
Using our financial resources efficiently
Summary
Our resource funding is received from three Parliaments – UK, Scottish and Senedd.
- UK Parliament: £25.2m
- Scottish Parliament: £2.1m
- Senedd: £1.5m
The combined resource initially made available to the Commission was £25.2m voted activity. We also received non-voted funding of £225k to pay Commissioners’ fees.
Our final budget breakdown
Expenditure | Voted £m | Non-voted £m | Total £m |
---|---|---|---|
Departmental Expenditure Limit: Resource | 25.222 | 0.225 | 25.447 |
Departmental Expenditure Limit: Capital | 1.424 | 0.000 | 1.424 |
Annually Managed Expenditure: Resource | 0.050 | 0.000 | 0.050 |
Annually Managed Expenditure: Capital | 0.100 | 0.000 | 0.100 |
Total Net Budget: Resource | 25.272 | 0.225 | 25.497 |
Total Net Budget: Capital | 1.524 | 0.000 | 1.524 |
Net cash requirement | 26.123 | 0.000 | 26.123 |
The £2.1m from Scottish Parliament and £1.5m from Senedd budget is shown as income throughout the accounts and Statement of Outturn against Parliamentary Supply (SoPS). The remainder of the budget drawn down and not spent is included as deferred income in the Statement of Financial Position.
In achieving our objectives, we have used £25.1m worth of our resource budget for the whole year. This was out of the available sum of £25.2m approved by the UK Parliament in our Supplementary Estimate for the net resource voted requirement, net of income received from the devolved authorities. The graphic below summarises our financial performance on the ‘voted’ element of our budget.
Financial performance 2022/23
Our financial performance follows our strategic performance. For the year 2022/23:
- our staff costs represented 42% of our resource expenditure, which is a decrease from 2021/22 due to additional spend within our public awareness campaigns. The overall spend on staffing is higher by £1.3m.
- our capital expenditure increased by £0.1m from 2021-22 due to the continued improvement within ICT.
Overall expenditure
Scottish Parliament and Senedd expenditure in the table above are a subset of the overall cost.
We report our underspend to reflect in-year operational decisions, we exclude Policy Development Grant which is distributed by formula set by government.
In 2022/23 the underspend on this measure was £79k against the voted budget (>1%).
Other underspend
- £211k in provisions (Resource AME) due to less than expected pension and dilapidation movements.
- £612k in capital projects due to not continuing with our Political Finance Online project and the shift of on-premise servers to cloud based systems.
Our income in the accounts relates to charges for registering political parties.
We also report and are accountable to the Senedd and Scottish Parliament Corporate Body. The income recognised in the accounts is predominately for devolved elections work. All income is recognised in note 4 of the accounts.
We collect fines raised against political parties and individuals for failure to comply with the rules on party and election finance and then surrender these to the Consolidated Fund as required by law.
In addition to monitoring performance against budgets, we also managed within our cash limits set by the UK Parliament. We required cash amounting to £22.5m to finance our voted activities, which was £3.6m less than the sum of £26.1m approved by the UK Parliament in our Supplementary Estimate. The reconciliation of net resources outturn to net cash requirement, within the accountability report, provides a reconciliation from our outturn to the net cash we required in-year.
The Statement of Cash Flows shows that the cash balance as at 31 March 2023 was £9k.
The Statement of Financial Position as at 31 March 2023 shows negative taxpayers’ equity. These liabilities will be met through future provision of supply funding.
Supplier payments
Although we are independent of government, we aim to comply with the Prompt Payment Code that operates across the public sector. The target is to pay undisputed invoices within 30 days. In 2022-23, we paid 100% of invoices within 30 days.
Supply estimate for 2023-24
Our Main Supply Estimate for 2023-24 (HC1385) provides for a net resource requirement of £28.8m. This is an 14% increase from 2022-23 mainly due to the inflationary increases and additional public awareness budget. Our Main Estimate is broken down as follows:
Expenditure | Voted £m | Non-voted £m | Total £m |
---|---|---|---|
Departmental Expenditure Limit: Resource | 28.775 | 0.225 | 28.980 |
Departmental Expenditure Limit: Capital | 2.005 | 0.000 | 2.005 |
Annually Managed Expenditure: Resource | 0.050 | 0.000 | 0.050 |
Annually Managed Expenditure: Capital | 0.100 | 0.000 | 0.100 |
Total Net Budget: Resource | 28.805 | 0.225 | 29.030 |
Total Net Budget: Capital | 2.105 | 0.000 | 2.105 |
Net cash requirement | 29.133 | 0.000 | 29.133 |