Digital strategy for Scotland: sustainable digital public services - delivery plan 2025-2028

1. System Leadership

By improving how Government does business, the public sector can be better co-ordinated, joining up its efforts to avoid costly duplication. This coherence is vital to delivering digital services that are responsive to people’s needs and make sense to service users.

Achieving greater transparency around digital spending will enable decision-making that delivers responsive, fairer, and impactful public services. This will assist us to make the best use of public money and target digital interventions where they are most beneficial.

Summary of deliverables 2025-2028

To be delivered by the Scottish Government

1.1 Digital spend control and prioritisation

To be delivered by Local Government

1.2 Digital maturity in Local Government

1. System Leadership: deliverables

Scottish Government Deliverables

The following are part of ‘Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy – Delivering for Scotland (June 2025)’:

1.1 Digital spend control and prioritisation

By 2028, the Scottish Government will manage and control digital spending at a Government level to give visibility on total digital spend, and to help direct and leverage that spend in the most efficient way, reducing duplication or crossover, and ensuring efficient use and re-use of digital assets.

As we work to deliver this, you can expect to see:

• the adoption of a common digital portfolio framework
• increased transparency of digital spend
• a shift from fragmented approaches to a coordinated, system-wide model

This approach will reduce duplication and embed reuse as standard practice. Investment in digital projects will be prioritised according to the potential to deliver the greatest improvements in the efficiency and quality of our public services and projects that deliver meaningful and measurable outcomes for the people of Scotland.

Sponsor: Yor Turner (Chief Operating Officer for Digital, Scottish Government)

Local Government Deliverables

1.2 Digital maturity in Local Government

By 2028, the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government will ensure that all 32 Scottish councils are fully engaged with the enhanced digital maturity process, using an updated assessment tool. This will allow councils to benchmark their progress, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and prioritise targeted actions through clear improvement plans. These improvements will empower councils to assess their current capacity and capability to drive digital transformation and, where necessary, prioritise improvements, as well as identifying common challenges that might require a sector-wide approaches.

As we work to deliver this, you can expect to see:

• the annual publication of digital maturity reports for each council, collaborative workshops to share best practice, and the integration of maturity findings into council digital strategies and improvement plans
• enhanced improvement planning to inform investment in skills, technology, and organisational change, ultimately boosting councils’ ability to deliver high-quality secure digital services and respond to citizen needs more effectively
• regular engagement with the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) on vulnerability, threat intelligence and cyber maturity reporting, ensuring that Local Government realises the benefits from enhanced security collaboration

Sponsor: Sponsor: Thomas Glen (Chief Executive, Perth and Kinross Council)

Senior Responsible Officer: Martyn Wallace (Chief Digital Officer, Digital Office for Scottish Local Government)

What does delivery mean for people in Scotland?

Delivery of these system leadership actions will likely result in our public sector embarking on fewer digital projects overall – but we will be better able to prioritise this work to ensure best use of public money, delivering high quality and secure digital transformation and, as a result, meaningful improved outcomes for service users.

System leadership: beyond 2028

The Scottish Government is exploring whether a single centralised budget for digital projects would be beneficial.