The long wait for action

Connecting Scotland was an incredible response to tackling digital exclusion during the pandemic.

Over 61,000 vulnerable households were supported with digital devices, connectivity and skills support throughout 2020 and 2021.

The success of the programme was rooted in cross-sector partnership action. Over 4,000 projects were delivered by more than 1,000 unique organisations across the public and voluntary sectors.

The SCVO team had the privilege of co-ordinating the delivery of the programme. The joy of seeing the transformational impact of that work has been eroded by the subsequent loss of momentum and failure to deliver on its legacy.

The 2021 Programme for Government promised £200 million to get 300,000 households online by 2026. This ambition quietly vanished. However, even more modest levels of commitment and action promised in a ‘Full Business Case’ for the next phases of Connecting Scotland, published in September 2023, have failed to materialise.

It’s perhaps understandable that the cost-of-living crisis resulted in changed priorities. However, not all meaningful actions require large amounts of money.

In response to the lack of progress from the Scottish Government, we published our own Digital Inclusion Roadmap in November 2023. This set out the high-level actions needed to reduce digital exclusion in Scotland, based on a large evidence base and our learning from more than a decade of leading the movement to tackle digital exclusion in Scotland.

Audit Scotland also carried out an extensive review in 2024 to consider how well public bodies understand digital exclusion and the action being taken to reduce it.

The report, published over a year ago in August 2024, noted leadership on digital inclusion had faltered and momentum had stalled. It called for:

• A refreshed national digital strategy.

• A detailed, measurable delivery plan.

• Cross-sector leadership across government, local authorities and the voluntary sector.

There was a clear deadline: March 2025. That deadline has long since passed. There is still:

• No updated national strategy.

• No published delivery plan.

• No clarity on responsibility or timelines.

The Audit Scotland report explicitly referenced the SCVO roadmap as the foundation for Government to develop an action plan that could “make meaningful progress.”

We were hopeful that the Audit Scotland report would result in action and bring visible leadership and clear accountability. However, it’s clear that scrutiny from both Audit Scotland and the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee failed to stimulate any meaningful response, far less a change of course.