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Policy

Digital

From
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, +1 more … Minister for Business
Directorate
Digital Directorate, +1 more … Internal Audit and Assurance Directorate
Topic
Business, industry and innovation, Economy, Public sector
Policy actions  3 of 6

Digital ethics and inclusion

Connecting Scotland

Connecting Scotland is a Scottish Government programme, delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). The programme provides internet-enabled devices, connectivity and digital skills support to people who are digitally excluded.

Our vision is to create digital opportunity for everyone in Scotland. 

We’ll achieve this by: 

  • empowering people to thrive and improve their wellbeing through digital access  
  • enabling organisations to work together and improve digital inclusion services 
  • engaging with users to ensure what we do meets their needs and no-one is left behind  

Initially part of the pandemic response, the programme has issued over 61,000 devices since it began in May 2020. Since publication of a Full Business Case in 2023, the programme has continued to evolve from an emergency response to a sustainable initiative, shifting its focus towards supporting people long-term.   

Connecting Scotland has an evaluation programme, including welcome and impact questionnaires, detailed interviews with recipients and independent research into the operational effectiveness of the programme. You can find out more from the reports below.

Support for existing users of the programme is available on the SCVO website.

Digital Inclusion Alliance

The Digital Inclusion Alliance (DIA) aims to coordinate activity, support cross-sectoral collaborations, and remove barriers to furthering digital inclusion across Scotland.

We are bringing organisations together to share thoughts on how a national alliance could convene, compel, and inspire collaboration across sectors and support activity at regional, local, and hyper-local level. 

Digital Inclusion Charter

Scotland’s Digital Inclusion Charter builds on the success of the previous Digital Participation Charter. This will support, guide and recognise the work organisations do to help people get online. Public, private and third sector organisations are invited to sign up to demonstrate their commitment to supporting digital inclusion.

Ethics

We are committed to using digital technologies and citizen data in an ethical, responsible and trustworthy manner across Scotland’s public services and data-led activities.

As part of this, we have adopted a holistic approach to ethics which draws together digital, AI and data ethics expertise in the Scottish Government.

This will:

  • support open, transparent and ethical decision-making in the Scottish public sector
  • streamline existing ethics guidance
  • promote public participation in co-designing digital government and services

This work includes:

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