School laptops rollout: FOI release

Information requested

1. Can you confirm that the rollout of laptops is being managed by Local Authorities and not centrally controlled or managed by a Scottish Government department.
2. If the laptop rollout is being managed by Local Authorities are they responsible for the purchasing of the laptop and internet access equipment.
3. If being managed by Local Authorities are they responsible for the support of the rolled out equipment
4. If being managed by Local Authorities are they responsible for arranging the insurance cover requirement for the rolled out equipment
5. If being managed by Local Authorities how much funding has been given to each of them and how much has still to be issued

Response

Please find a response to your request below and in the annex, attached.

Whilst our aim is to provide information wherever possible, the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested, particularly in relation to how devices are currently managed by local authorities and on the logistics of delivery of the commitment to provide a device for every child.

Funding for devices was provided by the Scottish Government to councils in 2020/21 as a result of the pandemic and the closure of school buildings, resulting in over 72,000 pupils receiving a tablet or laptop to support their learning. The full funding has been allocated to each local authority. Using that funding, local authorities undertook their own procurement exercises; devices procured became assets of, and are now managed by individual local authorities in line with their own digital learning strategies. Local authorities are responsible for all aspects of managing these devices and decisions on their use are taken locally. The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on the individual digital strategies of local authorities. You may wish to contact them directly if you have further enquiries on devices and connectivity packages. Contact details for all local authorities in Scotland can be found on the COSLA website at this link - www.cosla.gov.uk/councils.

I enclose at Annex A, a breakdown of grant funding claimed in 2020/21 by each local authority. Please note, local authorities may have invested in their own device rollout programmes in addition to this Scottish Government funding. The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on those local programmes.

The commitment to provide every school aged child with access to a device by the end of this parliamentary term builds on but is separate from the funding issued to councils in 2020/21. We are currently in the planning stages of this commitment and are in discussion with local government regarding the logistics of the project. As such, we cannot yet be definitive about how the project or the devices themselves will be managed going forward.

Annex A

The following table shows the total grant claimed from Scottish Government funding, broken down by each local authority.

Local Authority	Total Claimed
Aberdeen City	£503,633.00
Aberdeenshire	£1,320,234.00
Angus	£511,133.00
Argyll and Bute	£447,007.00
City of Edinburgh	£943,823.00
Clackmannanshire	£225,168.00
Dumfries and Galloway	£733,257.00
Dundee City	£761,110.00
East Ayrshire	£742,413.00
East Dunbartonshire	£314,648.00
East Lothian	£470,240.00
East Renfrewshire	£211,204.00
Falkirk	£651,885.00
Fife	£1,847,197.00
Glasgow City	£3,123,122.00
Highland	£1,393,009.00
Inverclyde	£433,829.00
Midlothian	£396,484.00
Moray	£488,001.00
Na h‐Eileanan Siar	£179,454.00
North Ayrshire	£551,172.00
North Lanarkshire	£1,612,911.00
Orkney Islands	£142,900.00
Perth and Kinross	£719,348.00
Renfrewshire	£706,764.00
Scottish Borders	£631,807.19
Shetland Islands	£180,151.00
South Ayrshire	£524,128.00
South Lanarkshire	£1,468,744.00
Stirling	£454,473.00
West Dunbartonshire	£448,170.00
West Lothian	£844,736.00
Total	£23,982,155.2

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