Chamber and committees

The 2019-20 Budget Bill sets out the allocation for the Scottish Government to spend on the full range of digital priorities aligned with the digital strategy.

In addition to this central allocation, organisations advance their digital investment through individual budget allocations. Central Government Digital projects are registered with the Scottish Government, and the total of estimated whole life costs currently held for these projects is £1.1bn. A breakdown of this figure was provided by the Scottish Government to the Public Audit and Post Legislative Scrutiny Committee in May 2019.

The Scottish Government Digital Transformation Division is currently supporting 14 programmes of varying size across government.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-24023 on 29 July 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government’s ‘back office’ functions such as HR, Finance and Procurement offer a range of digital services across the organisation and some to other public sector organisations as well. These services have on-going improvement programmes that are supported by the Digital Transformation Division.

We also operate a central IT function providing network, desktop infrastructure and productivity tools (for example Microsoft Office). Again these services can be accessed through a digital channel and there is on-going work to develop and update the services.

There are currently active programmes developing public sector digital services that organisations can re-use as part of their digital transformation programmes, in particular a digital identity service and a payments platform. These are in their early stages and will complement some UK government shared platforms that are already in use.

There are some examples of ‘corporate licenses’ that the Scottish Government has access to, notably for Microsoft and Oracle products. Digital cloud services are now typically offered on a subscription model rather than buying a license and The Scottish Government are investigating how best to procure these services across government.

The Scottish Government has set out the Digital First Service Standard that aims to improve the ways in which services are designed, developed and improved. Scottish Government’s Digital Assurance Office carries out assessments during the development of new services and provides recommendations to ensure that the standard is met.

The Digital Transformation division includes specialists in areas such as service design, programme management and technical architecture and makes these skills available to other parts of Scottish Government.

The total amount spent on digital skills training within Scottish Government is not held centrally. Each Scottish Government Directorate manages their own training budget and training is based on workstream /individual requirements. The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

In September 2017, the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate increased the training options available through the launch of the Scottish Digital Academy. This aims to close recognised skills gaps through courses, in subjects such as agile project management, and has delivered training to over 1,200 delegates since that time.

The Digital Directorate both arranges and attends a number of public sector conferences to promote its transformation capability.

Senior members of the directorate also sit on corporate and programme boards where they are able to identify where support is required and signpost the services on offer.

The Digital Directorate’s IT desktop and infrastructure services are publicised through the Scottish Government intranet, Saltire. This includes a service catalogue where employees can request licenses, software etc. and such requests are processed through authorisation and delivery. Services are also promoted by a small group of digital business partners who are able to work with different teams across the Scottish Government and resolve issues as they arise.

We are expanding the Saltire catalogue to include a wider range of services in particular software development, digital publishing and digital advice.

All significant digital projects undergo a number of Digital First Assessment as part of the governance process. This is also an opportunity to offer specific assistance from the Digital Directorate if it is appropriate.

Scottish Government provides support to public sector bodies directly through the activities of the Digital Transformation Division. This has delivered over 90 projects over the past three years.

Technical staff within the division use common templates and approaches to create digital system designs. A resources website and document repository including a number of these templates is also available.

There is no legislation specifically relating to the management of open spaces within woodlands for fire prevention. However the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) – the reference standard for sustainable forest management - requires that forest managers consider the risks of fire when designing their woodlands.

Guidance to support the UKFS was published in 2014 to help reduce the likelihood and severity of wildfires in forests and woodlands. The guidance - Building Wildfire Resilience into Forest Management Planning – covers management of open spaces as well as other issues.

Scottish Forestry assesses woodland creation proposals and management plans against the UKFS, and takes into account the supplementary guidance when doing so. Forestry & Land Scotland follows the UKFS, and takes into account the supplementary guidance, in managing national forests and land.

The Government’s STEM Strategy specifically highlights the importance of providing opportunities for young people to develop their digital skills. In line with the Strategy, we are providing dedicated support for digital learning and teaching through a range of projects for early years, primary and secondary schools. We have updated the school curriculum guidance to introduce a clear expectation that young people learn the fundamentals of computing science and digital skills from the earliest years.

Education Scotland is continuing to provide professional learning opportunities for teachers, including through the establishment of Computing Science Lead Teacher networks (one for primary and early years and 6 regional networks for secondary) whose members will receive national-level training to be cascaded to local practitioners.

Education Scotland has also worked with the Barefoot Computing programme to ensure that teaching resources are linked to the curriculum. The latest available data shows that 69% of schools in Scotland have engaged with the programme through workshops or by teachers downloading resources. In addition, Education Scotland along with British Computing Science has published “Quick Start” guides for primary schools along with a Computing at Schools Scotland resource for early years and primary. Other support activity has included work with Police Scotland to promote a resource it created for Cyber Resilience aimed at pupils in S1 to S3 .

The Digital Schools Award provides primary and secondary schools with a framework to embed digital technology within learning and teaching. The scheme offers a step by step framework for primary and secondary schools to support the best use of technology in learning.