Renewing Scotland's full potential in a digital world: consultation

3. Purpose

This is a discussion document. It is designed to stimulate ideas and serve as the basis for consultation and engagement with stakeholders, the public and businesses about the final content of the updated digital strategy.

It describes an ambition which we jointly believe is proportionate to the extent of the challenges and opportunity we now face.

The document has been co-produced by Scottish Government and Scottish local government (representation from COSLA, the Local Government Digital Office and the Improvement Service). It enjoys the support of NHS Scotland and has been shaped by contributions from our tech sector.

We hope to stimulate ideas and contributions that will inform the final Strategy and the digital vision for Scotland. This will deliver the commitment made in the Scottish Government Programme for Government^[2] and provide an overarching framework, priorities and principles that will shape subsequent, sector specific action plans in areas such as planning and health and social care.

This document is intended to set out the overarching digital vision; but separate strategies and or action plans may be required in specific policy areas. Digital strategy updates which take account of the radically changed environment are underway across government, including in health and social care, in planning, and in learning. We are working closely with colleagues to ensure our work is aligned, and together we deliver the vision outlined in this document.

We are grateful for the input we have had so far in the development of this document. This includes the 56 submissions received from a cross section of Scottish business through the joint Digital Nation initiative with ScotlandIS, our involvement in the Scottish Enterprise led work on Using Covid-19 Recovery and Renewal Scenarios to support Planning and Policy Making, the input of the cross-public sector Central Government Digital Transformation and Technical and Design Boards, and the views of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Scottish Library and Information Council, the Open Rights Group and Citizens Advice Scotland. We look forward to receiving further views throughout the engagement period.

We are now seeking views and input to this discussion document between October and December 2020. While this document may appear to be nearly finished, and the language definite, that is not the case. We are now actively seeking contributions from across society. We want you to challenge us if you think we can go further and caution us if you think that a different approach is required. We want you to think about and suggest the actions we should take together – immediately and over the longer term – to bring the vision into reality.

We are committed to ensuring the engagement we undertake is inclusive, and will work with partners to ensure as many views as possible from across society are included – including those of the digitally excluded.

Based on your feedback, we will then work to develop and publish the updated Digital Strategy for Scotland.

We are keen to hear all of your views on any aspect of the focus and actions required for an updated Digital Strategy for Scotland. Please see the “Responding to this Consultation” section on page 35 for details of how to take part.