27 government were staff sacked for misconduct

THE Scottish Government has fired 27 staff for gross misconduct in the past five years, figures released under Freedom of Information have revealed.

Amid a total of 105 disciplinary actions launched against staff since 2005, a further 21 were given written warnings following serious misconduct charges, some of which involved the abuse of alcohol and misuse of the government's flexitime system.

Most disciplinary incidents resulted in a written warning for the employee, but nine employees had resigned as a result of their conduct.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We take seriously any case of misconduct in the workplace and has robust and effective disciplinary procedures to deal with this."