FOI Request - Climate Awareness Training for Councillors and Staff

Request 101003625785

I would like information about your council’s climate awareness training in relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards. This information may be held by the HR department or other departments that organise staff training.

In particular, please supply me with information relating to the following questions:

1.a) Have all senior management received climate awareness training, including Carbon Literacy or equivalent, before 15th August 2024? Please state the type of training.

We are seeking information for senior managers who have had climate awareness training that has taken place since 1st January 2015 and up until 15th August 2024. We define senior management as including all Chief Executives, deputy Chief Executives and Directors or Heads of Departments, or equivalents, depending on what each council calls them.

b) Have all current councillors in the cabinet or committee chairs received climate awareness training, including Carbon Literacy or equivalent, since being elected from May 2023 or before? Please state the type of training.

We don’t expect councillors who were elected in May 2024, or since, to have already been trained. We are only seeking information for cabinet or committee chairs who have taken climate awareness training that has taken place since 1st January 2015 and up until 15th August 2024.

This could be training certified by the Carbon Literacy Project or another organisation, university or in-house. We want to know the number of people who have attended the training. We don’t need to know the number of staff that have received a certificate of completion or attendance.

Response 16-09-2024

1.a) No. Approximately 5 senior managers (third tier and above) have undertaken Carbon Literacy training. 

b) No. 6 councillors have undertaken Carbon Literacy training.

There is also a climate change module on our online learning platform; however, this has been down recently due to reasons outwith our control. The number of senior managers that have accessed the module is between 1 and 5; the low numbers associated with this response may result in the identification of individuals. Therefore numbers between 1 and 5 have been redacted as this response is exempt under Section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - personal information