Collaborative economy report response: June 2018

Conclusion and Next Steps

Helen Goulden, the Panel’s Chair, highlighted the wide ranging remit and the relatively short period that the Panel had to consider a number of complex issues in a fast moving and changing landscape. Yet the Panel’s report and recommendations clearly show the very careful consideration that it gave to its brief and the issues it considered.

We have gained from the vast knowledge and evidence gathered by the Panel through its engagement with a wide range of organisations and individuals. This work has made a significant contribution to the Scottish Government’s thinking around what the collaborative economy means for Scotland. It has influenced how we will position ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities it provides while addressing challenges.

In its report, the Panel placed particular importance on the opportunity that we have in Scotland to shape the collaborative economy in the way we want and to realise the significant benefits this can have. These include not only the growth of our tourism sector and new transport solutions, but also wider opportunities to help tackle social challenges and address areas of unmet demand such as health and social care.

The other clear focus of the report was the need to create the right operating environment. We need to continue to encourage and support innovation, ensuring that we have the right digital infrastructure and skills in place. We also need to be responsive to the pace of change in our regulatory framework. We must ensure that the needs of people and communities are not over looked and that where there are potential concerns, such as those seen through short term lets, that any negative impacts are evaluated and addressed.

Importantly for workers in the collaborative economy, platforms must embrace Fair Work values and participants must be fully informed of their rights and responsibilities. For individuals engaging in the collaborative economy whether as consumers or providers, they too must be informed and empowered to take action when things go wrong.

This report has set out the range of activities already underway in Scotland in relation to the Panel’s recommendations, along with our next steps. In particular:

• We have launched ShareLab Scotland – a Scottish collaborative platform fund which will open to Expressions of Interest in summer 2018.
• We have established a cross Scottish Government Short Term Lets Delivery Group to look at the existing powers local authorities have and to determine if further measures are required.
• The group will consider what mechanisms might be developed to enable a pilot on short term lets in Edinburgh or other local authorities as recommended by the Panel, and explore whether a “sandbox approach” can be used to trial any proposed regulatory solutions in Edinburgh.
• We will work to build the evidence base around the quantifiable impacts of short term lets and the impact on local longer-term housing stock availability, and set out an approach to pilot a data observatory.
• We will fund Citizens Advice Scotland in 2018-19 to raise awareness of the rights and responsibilities of consumers, providers and those working in the sector.
• We will work with Trading Standards Scotland to consider any limitations of current consumer protection in the collaborative economy and any actions to address these.
• We will pilot new approaches to increase trust and transparency in the collaborative economy in Scotland, including a mechanism to capture and act on concerns of guests using peer to peer accommodation.
• We have committed to developing a Fair Work Action Plan by the end of 2018 to deliver our ambition for Scotland to be a Fair Work Nation by 2025. The Plan will include actions specific to the collaborative economy.
• To ensure Scotland remains recognised as one of the leading countries in Europe for better regulation, we will look to international experience to deliver the fair and socially responsible collaborative economy that we want for Scotland.
• We will continue to work closely with the Regulatory Review Group to actively improve the regulatory landscape and reduce unnecessary burdens on business.
• Building on success to date around improving the digital skills and capabilities of tourism businesses, we will work with our visitor economy agencies to continue to support Digital Tourism Scotland.
• In developing the post-2020 Tourism Strategy, the Scottish Government and its partners will continue to work with the industry to highlight the importance of digital to the continued development of the sector and to Scotland’s broader economic goals.
• In light of the opportunities offered by the development of new Business Improvement Districts, we will work with communities and stakeholders to test how matched crowd-funding can support citizen-led innovation and community projects and the wider tourism sector.
• We are exploring how we can further support peer to peer collaborations between social enterprise using collaborative technologies such as the CivTech challenge.

The Panel’s work has provided us with a strong foundation on which we will build a collaborative economy that works for all. We call on partners to continue to work together to develop and grow the collaborative economy in Scotland. In doing so, we will adapt and respond to ensure that we benefit from the opportunities to create a fairer, more equal Scotland centred on inclusive economic growth.