Publication - FOI/EIR release

Digital support funding: FOI release

Published: 13 March 2024
Directorate: Economic Development Directorate
Topic: Business, industry and innovation, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202300382065
Date received: 23 October 2023
Date responded: 20 November 2023

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government published in September 2021 pledged to invest “£100m in digital support programmes” in the current Parliament (May 2021-May 2026).

In relation to the above, I would like to request the following information:

Please see individual responses to your questions below.

Response

How much of the £100m has been spent as of 23 October 2023.

Up to and including 23 October 2023 the Scottish Government has directly provided funding of £38,525,879 on the above commitment specifically through four schemes: Digital Development Grants, Digital Development Loans, the DigitalBoost National Programme and a pilot project on digital productivity.

A breakdown of the spending to date by financial year (ie 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24).

See table in separate document

A breakdown of planned allocation of currently unspent funding by financial year (eg 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26).

The figure of £38m provided above refers to financial and advisory support delivered to businesses specifically through four schemes: Digital Development Grants, Digital Development Loans, the DigitalBoost National Programme and a pilot project on digital productivity. Due to the extraordinary pressure on public finances and the emergence of new priorities, these programmes are currently paused.

It is important to be clear, however, that these schemes do not represent the totality, or even the majority, of the Scottish Government’s investment in support for businesses to improve their digital capability. Broader institutions and publicly funded programmes engaged in activity of this kind include the DataLab, CENSIS, the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, Techscaler, Business Gateway, the Smart Things Accelerator, Next Zero Technology Centre and the Scotland 5G Centre. Once these broader commitments are included, we are confident that the Scottish Government will meet its commitment to invest at least £100m in the digital capabilities of Scottish businesses by the end of the Parliament.

The Scottish Government has funded two key digital support programmes in recent years: Digital Development Loan (launched in 2018) and the DigitalBoost Development Grant (initially launched in January 2021).

For each of those schemes, can you provide the following information:

A breakdown of total funding provided to date by financial year (ie 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023- 24).

See table in separate document

A breakdown of the average funding per successful company application by financial year (ie 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24).

See table in separate document

How many businesses have received funding to date in each financial year (ie 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24).

See table in separate document

DigitalBoost Development Grant

See table in separate document

Digital Development Loan

See table in separate document

A breakdown of funding provided by each of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas (based on the address of the company receiving funding) for each financial year (ie 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24).

See table in separate document

DigitalBoost Development Grant

See table in separate document

Digital Development Loan

See table in separate document

Is the scheme still open and accepting applications?

No.

If the scheme is closed to new applications, what was the date of closure?

DigitalBoost Development Grant officially closed on contract end date of 13 May 2023.
Digital Development Loan officially closed on contract end date of 2 May 2023.

A copy of any reports analysing the impact of the schemes and the return on taxpayer investment.

See attached reports for DigitalBoost Development Grant and Digital Development Loan.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.