End of Commitment Report – Fiscal Openness and Transparency – improving the accessibility and usability of our data and information about the public finances.

Name of Evaluator

Andy McDevitt

Email

[email protected]

Member Name

Scotland, United Kingdom

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – Scotland, United Kingdom, 2021 – 2025

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Fiscal Openness and TransparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More – improving the accessibility and usability of our data and information about the public finances.

Title

Fiscal Openness and Transparency – improving the accessibility and usability of our data and information about the public finances.

Action

Our goal is comprehensive, accurate, trustworthy, timely and linked fiscal information that is accessible, usable and understandable to a wide-range of users, including open fiscal data that people can easily reuseBenchmark progress on fiscal openness and transparency Establish an approach to assess progress of fiscal openness and transparency, moving towards international best practices and transparency & data standardsImprove the accessibility of fiscal information Implement the Fiscal Transparency Discovery Report recommendations to improve the quality, coverage, presentation and standards of current fiscal data Deliver a procurement management information platform to improve data standards, demonstrate the impact of public sector procurement on Scotland’s economy – identifying opportunities to maximise delivery of outcomes at a local and national level Improve the transparency around the Scottish Budget, reviewing the accessibility and usability of existing and future information and guidanceImprove engagement and participation Build on previous engagement and best practice to develop a multi-stakeholder approach to the next Infrastructure Investment Plan Build on previous engagement, striving for a best practice approach to engagement, ensuring that we use our taxPlacing transparency, accountability, and participation at the center of tax policy can ensure that burdens are distributed equitably across society. Technical specifications: Commitments related to c... powers in a transparent policy making process Develop an approach that builds on best practice to ensure high quality engagement and participation in the review of the National Outcomes

Problem

As the process of devolution has progressed, the Scottish Government has moved from a predominantly spending government to one that now raises a significant portion of its own revenue, up to 36% in 2019-20. This means the Scottish Government has more autonomy or choice about the levers it can use to implement economic and social policy decisions to progress the National Outcomes in the National Performance Framework. The additional powers and responsibilities are intended to improve financial accountability and scrutiny; however, they have also led to greater complexity. We are aware from engagement with stakeholders and citizens that there is more the Government can do to improve the transparency of financial, procurement, and performance information.  We also know, from our Fiscal Transparency Discovery Report, taken forward as part of our commitment to financial transparency in the previous NAP, that the current fiscal information is not easily accessible or presented in a way that meets most users’ needs. These challenges include: The Scottish Parliament and human rightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T.../equalities organisations have called for improved published fiscal information. Open Government stakeholders have called for better information to enable them to “follow the money” from revenue raised to spending choices and outcomes progressed. The current presentation of information does not compare well with the best practice of other Scottish organisations and key comparators internationally

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

substantial

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

While initial fiscal benchmarking was completed, further work stalled due to resource pressures. The planned fiscal transparency portal advanced significantly but was paused in early 2025 due to technical and data quality issues, with no imminent launch planned. The procurement platform (MIPS), launched in 2024, continued expanding across the public sector with new spending dashboards. Twenty-seven budget publications were released in December 2024, with ongoing work to identify additional budgets for future transparency reporting. Infrastructure data transparency progressed through international engagement, though the Infrastructure Strategy was delayed to 2027/28. A Tax Strategy was published in December 2024, followed by a Council Tax reform engagement programme and, in late 2025, a Tax Literacy Guide and inaugural Tax Conference. (See Final Report for full details and references)

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

All interviewed stakeholders acknowledged that the commitment did not progress as far as had been hoped, especially with regard to the fiscal transparency portal. Nevertheless, the process of developing the portal has yielded some important lessons that will be important to take forward. Specifically, it has become apparent that while a ‘front-end’ of the portal can be delivered relatively easily with a team that knows how, the technical ‘back-end’ requires high-quality data to be collected in an efficient way and fed into the portal in an automated way. This was where the challenges were found. Without improvements to underlying data and systems, maintaining up-to-date data on a portal is extremely time-consuming, complex, and technically difficult. As noted by civil society representatives, “there is a fundamental challenge with how the government as a whole manages the interoperability of its financial data. This is a huge challenge that needs to be addressed first.”
The government acknowledged that, in this context, the objective of developing an externally facing fiscal portal service may have been too ambitious to achieve within the action plan period. While having a general awareness of the challenges other countries had faced in developing fiscal portals, it was not until the development process that these could be understood in a Scottish Government context. Thus, the action plan provided an opportunity to learn these lessons in a real-world context: “If we hadn’t done this work, the data issue would not have become so clear”. (See Final Report for full details and references)

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

Most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

With regards to the fiscal transparency portal, an initial Alpha prototype was developed in 2023, using published infrastructure investment data to test a number of assumptions, with a minimum viable product (MVP) Beta solution, using current Scottish Budget data, following in 2024. Both the prototype and the MVP confirmed the value in presenting raw data in dynamic visualisations, but also identified significant technical challenges and practicalities with the underlying data supply and system integration needed to service a Portal in a cost-effective way. Given the challenges identified, a decision was made by the government to pause further work on the portal until improvements to its underlying data supply and systems could be progressed sufficiently, while committing in the interim to use the insights gained to consider other ways to make financial data more accessible and reusable. (See Final Report for full details and references)

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Despite the fact that the centerpiece of this commitment, a fully operational public-facing fiscal transparency portal, was not ultimately delivered during the action plan, some significant results and learning were nevertheless achieved across multiple strands of work. That said, many of these achievements can reasonably be described as incremental rather than transformational. (See Final Report for full details and references)

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Marginal

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Following early engagement with the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) and the infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST) to understand best practice on engagement with the public around infrastructure investment, the Infrastructure Strategy (a replacement for the Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP)) was delayed beyond the current plan period (now planned for 2027/28). As a result, substantive public engagement on the next IIP, as envisioned in the plan, did not take place. A draft Infrastructure Strategy has now been published for consultation, and the government will continue to work with SFT and other stakeholders to develop the Infrastructure Strategy, particularly the Planning Infrastructure and Place Advisory Group (PIPAG), which was created to help advise on a more integrated place-based approach to infrastructure delivery. On tax transparency, the government has provided more and better-quality information through the Framework for Tax, which sets out principles around tax. Among other things, the government delivered a series of stakeholder events to gather views on the Tax Strategy, published its Tax Literacy Communications Best Practice Guide, and hosted its first Tax Conference to discuss various topical tax issues. (See Final Report for full details and references)

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Not Applicable

2.1.4 Other Results

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Arguably, one of the main achievements of this commitment was less about what has been delivered and more about the opportunities it has provided for building trust and fostering collaboration, which is a valuable long-term investment. According to the government, this success comes from the fact that the joint government-civil society oversight group was invested from the beginning, having co-created the commitment at the outset, with strong and consistent senior government and civil society leadership, and a formalised approach, including terms of reference, regular scheduled meetings, deep dive discussions, and annual milestone reviews. This allowed the group to become more collaborative and learn together as the commitment was implemented. The sense of collaboration was further strengthened by the fact that civil society provided substantive contributions in the form of both concrete activities and expert advice (SHRC, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland, ICAS, CoST).
Meanwhile, at the global level, government and civil society members worked closely together to support OGP’s Nordic+ event on fiscal data transparency in Scotland, which has helped provide inspiration from connecting and sharing between countries. (See Final Report for full details and references)

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

The experience from the implementation of the fiscal transparency commitment points to a number of opportunities to move forward with this stream of work. While it is not clear that the next action plan will have a dedicated commitment to fiscal transparency, there is scope to include fiscal data as a key component of a broader focus on open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., which is likely to form a key part of the next plan. Indeed, fiscal data should arguably be at the heart of the government’s future work on open data, given its central importance to understanding how government raises and allocates resources for the public good.
With regards to the fiscal transparency portal itself, there are no plans to launch a portal in the immediate future. While the government acknowledges that a portal remains a useful solution to meet some transparency needs, it does not see it as the only solution. Other smaller-scale solutions explored to meet the differentiated needs of different user groups might include more open data published in machine-readable formats, and clearer citizens’ versions of key budget documents (a recommendation from SHRC research). Greater collaboration with civil society on visualising public spending (e.g., the Fraser of Allander Institute and Joseph Rowntree Foundation Scottish Public Spending Dashboard) is another potential area of opportunity. At the same time, the introduction of a new financial management IT system within the Scottish Government provides an opportunity to strengthen the quality and accessibility of core financial data, which could, in time, potentially be integrated with dynamic visualisations such as a portal or dashboard. Finally, with regard to the collaborative spirit under which the commitment was carried out, the transition of the Equalities and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group (EHRBAG) to the Scottish Exchequer could represent an important opportunity to continue this collaborative work going forward.