Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26: programme pipeline update - March 2023

Sector: Digital

Programme name: Reaching 100% programme (R100)

Programme description: The R100 programme is a commitment unique across the UK, to enable access to superfast broadband with speeds of at least 30 Megabits per second (Mbps) to every home and business in Scotland.

Estimated total investment: Over £600 million has been committed to the R100 contracts with additional investment also available through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS). Over the past year (2022-23) we have successfully secured further UK Government funding of £16 million through Project Gigabit to extend R100 contract coverage in the North and South.

How is programme being funded: Government funding of £600 million has been committed to the North, Central and South R100 contracts (£579 million by SG and £21 million by UKG). Extra funding has since been added into the South contract, in July 2022 and to the North contract in August 2022. In the South contract, this amounted to £6.6 million of funding from UK Government's Project Gigabit. In the North contract, this amounted to £29.6 million made up of £20.2 million of Scottish Government funding and £9.4 million from UK Government.

As the R100 contracts are 'gap funded', the contract delivery partner BT, also contributes towards the capital costs of delivery. This currently amounts to £54 million, including extra contributions added alongside the additional funding described above.

In 2021, UKG announced that it was investing £4.5 million in the Central contract area and £8 million in the North contract area to flip around 9,000 properties from fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) to fibre to the premises (FTTP).

Programme delivery timetable: High quality infrastructure continues to be built across the country through the R100 contracts, the voucher scheme and ongoing works by commercial operators. The R100 Central and South contracts were signed in December 2019 followed by the North in December 2020. Overall contract build is currently expected to complete in 2027-28. These dates reflect additional time required to accommodate the extended build outlined above.

Latest programme progress: All 16 new subsea fibre cables have been laid through the R100 North contract. These cables will provide gigabit capable, future-proofed, resilient connectivity to the following 15 Scottish islands island communities for decades to come:

• Colonsay, Iona and Lismore in Argyll and Bute.
• Eigg in the Highlands.
• Eday, Flotta, Hoy, Rousay, Sanday, Shapinsay and Stronsay in Orkney.
• Fair Isle, Unst, Whalsey and Yell in Shetland.
• There is also a cable laid between Sanday and Fair Isle.

All of the planned R100 build in the South and North contract areas, including the recently announced extended build and the vast majority in the Central contract, will be gigabit capable. This is more than 30 times faster than the original commitment to deliver 30Mbps. As much of the technology delivered will go beyond the original superfast commitment, the engineering works will take time, but it will ensure that a future-proofed and resilient broadband infrastructure reaches some of the most rural and remote areas of Scotland.

The R100 contract build is well underway with connections now live in all contract areas. As at 28 February 2023, the three R100 contracts for North, South and Central had delivered 20,277 contracted premises and an additional 5,212 non-contracted "overspill" premises.

The demand led R100 SBVS continues to provide homes and businesses access to superfast broadband where no contracted or commercial build is scheduled. Since launch, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) has delivered almost 3,000 connections to voucher eligible properties. There are another c650 connections either in build or going through the approvals process.

Contribution to economic development: The R100 programme continues to contribute to Scotland's economy. Access to superfast broadband is a key enabler for economic recovery and R100 public spending is focused where it is needed most – in rural Scotland. This can be illustrated through recent feedback from beneficiaries of the R100 programme through a series of case studies. A formal evaluation process will also be initiated in 2023-24.

Contact for public enquiries: All public enquiries should be directed towards the R100 Enquiries Team at the Superfast Broadband - R100 Public Enquiries website Further information can be found at the Superfast Broadband website.

Programme name: Digital Public Services Programme

Programme description: Increased investment in developing common digital operating platforms and the transformation of key public services.

Estimated total investment: £110 million.

How is programme being funded: Capital funding for the programme fund covers financial years 2022-23 to 2025-26.

Programme delivery timetable: Programmes are currently in-flight and are on target to deliver benefit realisation over the parliamentary term.

Latest programme progress: In June 2022, the Scottish Government Payments Service, reached another significant milestone with its first beta partner Independent Living Fund Scotland (ILF Scotland) and officially launched a Minimum Viable Service (MVS) as the service formally moved into a private beta phase. This beta launch commenced the start of ILF Scotland process regular weekly BACS (Bacs Payment Scheme) payment cycle via the Scottish Government payments service. With ongoing incremental development and gradual increase of volumes and values processed, as of March 2023 the payments service has now processed 1,641 payments over 42 consecutive weeks (batches) to the value of £3 million will 11 releases deployed to date.

The successful private beta launch follows a period of significant technical development and testing, undertaking the necessary assurance assessments, an external cyber security assessment and further rounds of inclusive testing with stakeholders and users.

From April 2023 onwards, the Student Award Agency Scotland (SAAS) are confirmed as beta partner 2. With development underway and plans for a test student payment scheduled in June 2023 and plans for transition of funds throughout 2023-24 to be agreed.

Ongoing monitoring, iteration and service improvement will continue as we progress towards the end of beta (April 2024). Completion of the programme's next set of priorities and overall development of the payments service is expected at the end of financial year 2023-24, with on boarding of public bodies and benefit realisation expected to continue over a 10-year period until 2032.

Platform and Service development will continue throughout 2023-24 with technology partner Scott Logic as the programme continues to build functions and features in line with the technical and product roadmap. Ongoing development of the service management support function will continue as well as build internal capacity and capability within the Scottish Government. Digital will enable the effective transition of platform ownership from technology partner planned for March 2024.

The Digital Identity Programme continues to work with its development partner, Scott Logic, to develop and deliver the digital identity service. The first live trial version (private beta) of the service was launched on 28 February 2023 in partnership with Disclosure Scotland. Users are using the digital identity service to access the results of their Protection of Vulnerable Groups checks. It is part of an overall "end-to-end" service, which aims to reduce the time it takes for people to complete their Disclosure checks and access their certificates online – rather than receiving a paper certificate in the post. Within the private beta, users can sign on securely using an email address, password and "two-factor authentication" code sent via text message. Then users verify their identity using biometric photo verification, with a passport, driving licence or biometric residence permit.

Following the private beta launch, further developments planned for later this year will include adding other methods for two-factor authentication and identity verification; and work to add the attribute store. The Scottish Government also plans to start on-boarding more public service customers during 2023 onwards.

The Cloud programme is delivered Release 1.0, a minimum viable Scottish Government Cloud Platform AWS (Amazon Web Services) service in July 2022 and continues to provide services to Digital Payments, Digital Identity, Digital Connectivity R100 and Digital Data GISat (Geo Imaging Satellite). The design of Release 2.0 AWS strategic architecture has been completed and the build work is scheduled for completion in May 2023. Procurement of the AWS One Government Value Agreement is progressing, enabling Scottish Government Cloud Platform Service AWS customers access to discounted rates has been completed and is now available. The Azure environment has been secured through the existing Scottish Government Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, with the Alpha stage completed and Beta underway and due to be completed in June 2023.

The Cloud programme has ministerial approval for the Full Business Case of the Scottish Government Cloud Platform Service including a Service, Operations and Cost model for live service. Work is ongoing to confirm a pipeline of customers to on-board to the Scottish Government Cloud Platform Release 2.0. The Cloud programme is on track to deliver Release 2.0, a Scottish Government Cloud Platform AWS live and Microsoft Azure beta service in May 2023. A Release 3.0 for SG Cloud Platform Microsoft Azure live is scheduled for the summer 2023.

The CivTech 2022-26 Full Business Case was approved by Ministers in May 2022. This incorporates a significant scaling of the programme, in line with the 2022-26 Programme for Government commitment of up to £46 million funding for Challenges and £13.5 million operating costs.

The FBC envisaged a significant scaling of the CivTech team in 2022-23, and despite the recruitment constraints limiting this growth, CivTech delivered on all of its planned outputs for 2022-23. 20 Challenges were launched through CivTechs 7 and 8 (starting in June 2022 and October 2022 respectively); the GovTech Cluster was brought near to launch with the identification and procurement of a 'cluster driver organisation'; the Challenge Sponsor support system was successfully launched on CivTech 7, and the Business Growth System was expanded to include a post-Accelerator Stage. Major strategic partnerships were launched, including Innovate for Nature, the first of CivTech's 'Innovate for…' initiatives which bring together organisations in Scotland with common themes to work in partnership through the CivTech Innovation Flow; and a robust benefits realisation system reached its second stage of development.

In 2022-23, a £5 million contract funding was awarded to CivTech companies, representing a significant increase over previous years. While company Key performance indicators (KPIs) for 2022-23 are currently being assembled and therefore cannot be reported at this point, reports clearly indicate that the growth in businesses, jobs created, societal benefits and direct financial benefits to the exchequer from CivTech Alumni companies have continued to grow.

While the spend and recruitment controls in place may constrain certain elements of the CivTech programme in 2023-24, delivery levels will continue to be maximised within those constraints. CivTech 9 will launch in July 2023 with 14 to 15 Challenges and up to £10 million contract funding available for solutions developed through CivTech. The GovTech Cluster will launch, and further 'Innovate for…' initiatives will launch.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy Delivery Programme has taken forward a number of innovation projects including the Scottish AI Register (https://scottishairegister.com/), launched in March 2023, which will make transparent the development and use of AI in the public sector and offer the public a simple and effective platform to have a say in how AI is used to make decisions and deliver public services. It is designed to help public sector organisations starting out on their AI journey by providing them with structure and guidance to adopt a consistent, ethical, and open approach to developing and using AI. The Register includes a public-facing website providing detailed information about AI systems being used or developed in the public sector. This includes information related to the use of data (including personal data when applicable), how the system works, accountability, impact assessment, risk management and human oversight. The Register aims to track the entire life cycle of AI systems, from conception and development to use and retirement.

Throughout the last year we have continued to develop the analytical workbench (AWB) platform. We anticipate the full production version of the AWB to be available to users by the end of spring 2023. Built in the Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF), the AWB is creating a capability for the public sector that allows rapid adoption and development of new technologies, access to high-performance compute and the ability to collaborate across organisational boundaries to share resources, code, and ideas. The workbench is a safe, secure, permission-controlled environment that enables analysts to collaborate on data projects across organisational boundaries. The workbench provides easy access to a wide range of common, open-source analytical tools and the platform has the power needed for complex analysis with large datasets. The project has delivered virtual machines suitable for use with differing types of data, a choice of operating systems, easy to use mechanisms to get data securely in and out of the workbench and it also provides facilities for hosting interactive content.

Contribution to economic development: The Scottish Government's Digital Strategy 2021, A changing nation: How Scotland will thrive in a digital world, will drive efficiencies across the public sector. Digital Identity Scotland will provide a single digital identity for Scottish citizens to access public services in Scotland and the Payments platform will provide a centralised payments out/in digital service for public sector organisations to consume as required.

The Cloud First Programme enables the Scottish public sector to realise the benefits of Cloud services by accelerating the adoption of modern cloud technology by providing a Scottish Government Cloud platform. The programme will consolidate technical resources across Scottish Government to ensure public services are secure, sustainable and cost effective while supporting delivery of the Scottish Government's ambitions for a modern, flexible and responsive organisation, delivering services for the citizens of Scotland.

CivTech Alumni companies are employing over 300 people with an in-year gross increase in jobs in 2021-22 of 72 and an average remuneration of £44,441 per annum - 61% of turnover comes from Scotland; 30% comes from the rest of the UK; and 9% internationally. Private sector investment has risen from a total of around £6 million in March 2020 to over £50 million at March 2022. Of the 66 companies that have taken part in CivTechs 1-6, there is an 86% 'survival rate', comparing well to typical private sector accelerators where up to 80% of the teams fail, and to general start-up survival rates which have been calculated at 50% at the end of year 5.

Contact for public enquiries: Digital Identity Programme email:

digitalidentityscotland@gov.scot / Digital Payments Programme email:

SGpaymentservice@gov.scot / Cloud Programme email: Cloud1st@gov.scot / CivTech Programme email: Mark.Elliott@gov.scot / AI Strategy email: Jeremy.Darot@gov.scot