Scottish Government Evaluation Action Plan

Our Vision for Evaluation

The Scottish Government’s vision for evaluation is for:

1. SG policy and interventions (including spending and taxation) to be routinely evaluated (the suitability for evaluation and how we approach it are outlined in the principles below);

2. all applicable SG staff to be skilled to manage, conduct and / or utilise outputs from evaluations; and that,

3. evidence from these evaluations is used more effectively to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland.

To do this:

• We will drive a stronger culture of evaluation throughout the SG.
• We will further improve the quality of evaluations.
• We will make better use of evaluation evidence, at the right times when developing policy, and so will get better value for money.
• We will commit to greater openness and transparency, by publishing findings from all evaluations of government interventions, and announcing new evaluations when they are commissioned.

In assessing whether to undertake an evaluation and how we approach it we will apply the following principles:

• if there is a knowledge gap, including whether the policy, intervention or taxation is novel, untested, and if future policy might benefit from the evaluation.
• if the evaluation would help demonstrate accountability or would support transparency and build trust.
• the scale and potential impact of the policy or intervention.
• the extent to which the evaluation would deliver good quality evidence both in the short term and longer term.
• to ensure the evaluation informs decisions in the policy cycle,
• if the policy / intervention has been introduced following a national crisis (for instance Covid 19) to inform future planning and review / inquiry work.
• if the information collected will be used to inform future or ongoing policy Impact Assessments (including ICIA^[1], SEA^[2], FSDA^[3], EQIA^[4], CRWIA^[5], BRIA^[6], DPIA^[7], and Consumer Duty^[8]).

The scale of the evaluation will be influenced by:

• The degree of risk and uncertainty attached to the policy or intervention.
• The scale, impact and profile of the policy or intervention.

The actions for delivering our vision for evaluation are highlighted below under the four vision themes.