Scotland's Digital Future - Delivery of Public Services

Section One: Introduction

The Scottish Government is working with the wider public sector to achieve:

public services that are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local needs (National Outcome 16).

We do so in a context of unprecedented growth in demand for services and of constrained resources. A future that is both more sustainable and more equal will require the public sector to work with their user communities to redesign services and different parts of the public sector to work better together. The effective, innovative and imaginative deployment of digital technologies gives us tools to meet these challenges.

We see every day how digital technologies and communication are transforming life experiences at home, in social and community networks and in business. Digital technologies are also impacting on how people in Scotland acquire information about public services and access those services. We are not starting from a blank sheet but we have the opportunity for a much bigger transformation to:

use digital technologies to redesign services and better meet people's needs, including the opportunity for citizens to have more control over when and how they access services

deploy digital technologies in ways that reduce the cost of services to the user and provider

deliver services and manage data in a way that supports businesses and provides new business opportunities and contributes to economic growth

These objectives are wholly compatible and our strategy brings them together. This strategy sets out:

• our vision – what success will look like
• why we are doing this – drivers for development of digital public services
• who will deliver – the public sector working with the ICT industry to achieve success
• what we will do
  • principles that provide a framework for all our investment decisions and actions
  • actions that will be taken at a national level to facilitate the development of digital public services by, and across, different parts of the public sector
• how we will ensure delivery

In this strategy:

• 'services' means transactions and information
• transactional services allow the exchange of information, money, permission, goods and services between citizens/businesses and government
• informational services cover the publishing of information to assist citizens and businesses engage with government
• 'digital' means internet-enabled