Evaluation action plan and SG Centre of Expertise (CoE) in Appraisal and Evaluation: annual report 2025

Scottish Government (SG) Evaluation Action Plan and SG Centre of Expertise (CoE) in Appraisal and Evaluation – Annual Report 2025

In August 2024 the Scottish Government (SG) published its first ever Evaluation Action Plan which set out our approach to evaluation for the next few years. In the document we highlighted our intention to publish an annual report, which would set out the key achievements of that year in delivering the Action Plan. This report is a short overview of the key activities which we have achieved in the first full year (2025) since publishing the Action Plan.

One of the key commitments in the Action Plan was to investigate the establishment of a Centre of Expertise (CoE) in Appraisal and Evaluation. It was recognised that despite the similarities between appraisal and evaluation, with them both using similar types of evidence that they are often considered separately. Soon after publishing the Evaluation Action Plan we established the Centre of Expertise to join up both appraisal and evaluation. The Centre is a joint initiative between the SG’s Office of Chief Economic Adviser and the Office of Chief Researcher with five members of staff working for the Centre (equivalent to three full time posts). This Annual Report as well as reporting on key achievements since publishing the Evaluation Action Report is an overview of Centre of Expertise activities in the last 12 months and so refers to both appraisal and evaluation.

In the Evaluation Action Plan we set out four key themes which we would use to deliver our vision for evaluation in the SG, and we have adapted these so that they also apply to appraisal as well and the work of the Centre of Expertise. The themes are: (i) Creating a stronger culture of appraisal and evaluation, (ii) improving the quality of both, (iii) better use of evidence, and (iv) greater openness and transparency as a result of our appraisal and evaluation activity.

Outlined below is some of the key achievements from the last year in relation to the four themes:

Culture

• In 2025 we established the virtual Centre of Expertise in Appraisal and Evaluation. A Senior Advisory Group was established to steer the work of the Centre which met on four occasions during the year.
• We continued to offer in-depth evaluation training to all SG analysts as part of our Evaluation Academy, and so far nearly 150 SG analysts have graduated from the Academy. During the year another 7 analysts received training to become SG trainers to deliver the course in Scotland.
• The year also saw the introduction of appraisal training for SG economists, this was designed and delivered by experienced SG economists and two cohorts have now completed the training. Appraisal training for other analytical professions will be launched in 2026.
• As well as the existing online training course for policy professionals on evaluation, we introduced new live introductory sessions for evaluation and appraisal for policy professionals, with each session running twice a year.
• In 2026 we will carry out a survey of SG staff on their knowledge and experience of appraisal and evaluation. This is a follow up of a similar survey we ran in late 2023 and will provide a measure of the impact of the CoE’s work to date and areas for development in the coming year.

Quality

• Recognising the importance of Theory of Change (ToC) for effective and high quality policy / intervention design and evaluation activity we set up a new working group to develop further staff skills on this. To get a better understanding of the training needs of staff we ran a survey of all staff on ToC skills. New training and guidance on ToC has also been developed.
• To ensure that we consistently plan our evaluations and to record this we developed a new Evaluation Plan template and accompanying guidance. The template and guidance is currently being piloted across the SG and we plan to roll this out to all of the SG in 2026. It will be a requirement for all SG evaluation projects listed on the Evaluation Registry to upload and update an Evaluation Plan.
• As part of a SG Spending Review 2025/26 exercise questions on appraisal and evaluation were included for key lines of expenditure. The SG plans to use this information to inform future spending decisions, and also to target areas where there are not robust business cases or evaluation plans in place.
• In the 2024 Evaluation Action Plan we set out how our intention to set up an internal evaluation peer network which colleagues can call upon for advice and support, as well establish evaluation champions. We have carried out some pilot approaches to providing peer support and he have developed plans to set up peer networks for evaluation and appraisal and plan to launch this in 2026.
• To enhance our existing guidance for SG staff on evaluation we are finalising new guidance on ‘When to evaluate’, which will incorporate new recommendations on budgeting for evaluations.
• We have developed a cost-benefit analysis template to aid those carrying out appraisals to conduct the analysis in a consistent and transparent manner. This will be piloted and launched in 2026.
• We developed and launched a Business Case Checklist, to help the consistent review of the appraisals produced as part of the business case process.
• To enhance the quality and consistency of appraisals we developed a guidance document on managing and planning an appraisal.

Use of evidence

• The new Evaluation Plan template which will be fully rolled out in 2026 will collect information on the planned dissemination of research outputs, and how the SG plans to act on the findings or recommendations for each evaluation. We will use the information in the Evaluation Plan at a later date to check whether the findings have been utilised and disseminated in the ways originally planned
• We have developed proposals to conduct a short research project to assess the impact of SG evaluations from the last 10 years on the design of policies and interventions since.
• During the first half of 2025 we conducted a stock take of on-going and recent evaluation and appraisal activity in the SG. Information for the evaluation part of the exercise was obtained from SG records on the Cabinet Office’s Evaluation Registry. The total core SG spend was around £5.4 million for all the evaluations underway or published in the year to 31 March 2025. The stocktake highlighted areas in the SG where there is the most activity, and for evaluation the types of activities carried out and budget allocated
• We plan to repeat this exercise on an annual basis and to target areas where more evaluation support may be required, or if particular evaluation activities need to be carried out more.
• We are developing an internal appraisal library, providing analysts with easier access to completed business cases. This will allow improved sharing of best practice and better dissemination of evidence internally. The library is planned for launch in 2026.

Openness and Transparency

• The SG was one of the early adopters of the Evaluation Registry, with all of our recently published and on-going evaluations available on the database. In March 2025 the portal was made publicly available on the gov.uk website allowing members of the public to search for on-going and recent evaluations, the types of methods used, and budget. Over the next year we plan to include further information for each evaluation on the Registry including uploading Evaluation Plans and linking to other externally published outputs.
• During 2025 we launched a new web page for Evaluation in the SG which includes links to our guidance and recently published evaluations. To coincide with the official launch of the Centre of Expertise in May 2025 we also set up a new webpage for the Centre of Expertise. Internally we launched a page on Appraisal and Evaluation on the SG staff intranet.
• Throughout the year we have carried out a large number of outreach activities externally and within the SG to both raise the profile of appraisal and evaluation in the SG, and to highlight the establishment of the Centre of Expertise. Some of the key highlights include:
• Launch of the Centre by the Minister of Public Finance at the UK Evaluation Society Annual Conference in Glasgow in May 2025.
• The Centre co-leads giving the keynote speech to the Irish Government Economics and Evaluation Service Spring Conference in April, which included a meeting with the Irish Government’s Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation.
• The hosting of Evaluation Network Scotland’s November event at SG offices.
• We held learning sessions with all analytical areas within the SG, to raise awareness of the Centre and to understand what they would find useful from the Centre. We have also presented on the Centre of Expertise at numerous internal staff events throughout the year.
• We have invited academics to hold seminars on appraisal techniques, detailing the latest research and developments in the field of appraisal.
• In 2026 HM Treasury / Cabinet Office will be launching refreshed Green and Magenta Books (Central Government guidance on Appraisal, and evaluation). Staff members from the Centre have been actively involved in contributing to the drafting of both documents.

Priorities for 2026

We are still finalising the Centre’s priorities for 2026 but some activities we have agreed to take forward include:

• Publication of a Theory of Change for the Centre of Expertise (which we are publishing at the same time as this report).
• At the end of 2025/26 financial year carry out a stock-take of on-going and recent evaluation and appraisal activity.
• Launch our new Evaluation Plan template and guidance.
• Publish new ‘When to Evaluate’ guidance.
• Launch our cost benefit analysis template and appraisal library.
• Develop and deliver new advanced training on evaluation for policy makers, and appraisal for analysts.

SG Centre of Expertise in Appraisal and Evaluation January 2026