Scotland's Open Government action plan: 2021 to 2025

Foreword

As co-chairs of Scotland's Open Government Partnership, we are pleased to publish our third National Action Plan (NAP). This NAP builds on the progress made through Scotland's first and second NAPs, and sets out our most ambitious Commitments yet. This reflects our belief that Open Government plays a key role in creating an open, transparent and accountable government; strengthening public trust in our institutions, producing better public service outcomes, and a better quality of life for everyone.

We welcome the continued focus on Financial Transparency, Participation and Open Data. We have made significant progress in these areas through previous NAPs, but recognise there is more to do – we are confident that these Commitments will continue to drive improvement. Each of these elements are crucial to ensuring that decision making is open and accessible to the people of Scotland; that we recognise the value of, listen to, and act on perspectives outside of government; and that we enable meaningful public scrutiny.

Tackling the climate emergency and improving Health and Social Care are huge challenges faced by government. We believe that working in the open, in partnership with civil society and the people of Scotland, will improve outcomes and build public trust for these programmes of work. We are therefore delighted to include Commitments on these issues in this plan.

We are also delighted that these commitments present an opportunity for the Open Government Network to expand, collaborating with and learning from the wide range of stakeholders involved in these areas.

Scottish Government and COSLA officials, civil society partners and people across Scotland have contributed to the development of this plan. Retaining this spirit of collaboration and partnership working throughout the delivery of this NAP will be crucial to its success, and we look forward to developing these relationships across the next four years.