Audit Scotland
Digital e-hub
Audit Scotland supports the improvement of public services by looking at how public money is spent, and whether policies are achieving desired outcomes for individuals and bodies. We do this through our annual audits of individual public sector bodies and through more specific audits of local and national digital and ICT programmes.
Below, Gemma Diamond and Morag Campsie talk about some of the work we've done in this area and why it's important.
Our Digital audit strategy (PDF 436Kb) sets out the three main components of digital audit:
Digital auditing
Auditing digital
Digital capacity and resilience
We have created this hub to pull together different resources from our past auditing digital work and that of others. It also sets out our future plans. We intend to publish further resources and guidance, including fact sheets on specific digital topics.
Timeline
Exhibits
Our reports feature several exhibits that visualise complex data and processes in an accessible and informative way. See the examples below or click on our reports to find out more.
Reports
Our digital work includes an overarching guide of lessons learned from public sector ICT projects, and reports on digital related programmes for central government, infrastructure and health.
Central government
Infrastructure
Health
Future work
Resources
Giving evidence to Parliament
- Principles for a digital future at the Public Audit and Post Legislative Scrutiny Committee – ongoing. Monitoring of progress made with implementing major ICT programmes is currently taking place on a six-month basis.
- Principles for a digital future at the Social Security Committee on 14 September 2017.
- Managing ICT contracts in central government at the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee on 22 June 2015.
Conferences and other activities
We take part in a range of engagement activities to spread the word about our work on digital in the public sector in Scotland. Senior Manager Gemma Diamond and Audit Manager Morag Campsie spoke at the recent events listed below.
- Auditing cyber security seminar organised by the European Organisation of Regional External Public Finance Audit Institutions (EURORAI), April 2018.
- Following the launch of Principles for a digital future, speaking engagements included presentations about the report at EURORAI October 2017; ISACA Scottish Chapter AGM June 2018; and the LG Digital Office Partnership Forum October 2017.
- We have also spoken about The role of the auditor: change and process management at the ISACA Scottish Chapter AGM June 2017.
UK Audit offices
The National Audit Office (NAO) has produced the following reports and guidance on digital and cyber security related issues :
- Transformation guidance for audit committees, National Audit Office May 2018
- Digital Transformation in Government, National Audit Office March 2017
- The digital skills gap in government: Survey findings National Audit Office December 2015
- Investigation: WannaCry cyber attack and the NHS, National Audit Office October 2017
- Cyber security and information risk guidance for Audit Committees, National Audit Office September 2017
- Protecting information across government, National Audit Office September 2016
Information on good practice is also available from the Welsh Audit Office’s seminar ‘Inspiring public services to deliver independence and well-being through digital ambition’ hosted in June 2018.
A collection of international Publications on Digital Government is available from the OECD, ranging from 2003 - present.
Government information
The Scottish Government and UK Government, and Scottish Local Government Digital Office (LGDO) provide the following strategies and guidance:
- Introduction to Agile, Scottish Local Government Digital Office January 2019
- Scotland's Digital Health and Care Strategy: enabling, connecting and empowering, Scottish Government April 2018
- Cyber resilience: learning and skills action plan 2018-2020, Scottish Government March 2018
- Safe, Secure and Prosperous: a cyber resilience strategy for Scotland – Public Sector Action Plan 2017-18, Scottish Government updated March 2018
- Realising Scotland's full potential in a digital world: A Digital Strategy for Scotland, Scottish Government March 2017
- Digital First Service Standard, Scottish Government 2016
- Technology Assurance Framework, Scottish Government 2016
- Digital Infrastructure Toolkit, Cabinet Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, July 2018.
- Minimum Cyber security standard, Cabinet Office June 2018
- The 7 Lenses of Transformation Guide, UK Government Digital Service, May 2018.
- UK digital strategy, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, March 2017
- Cyber Essentials Scheme, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport April 2014
Digital Advisory Panel
Audit Scotland’s Digital Advisory Panel provides expertise and advice to our digital focused audit work. Members sit on the panel in an advisory capacity only. The content and conclusions of reports presented to the panel are the sole responsibility of Audit Scotland. We would like to thank the advisory panel for their ongoing input to our work:
- Charlie Anderson, Fife Council
- Professor Bill Buchanan, Napier University
- Rab Campbell, Wallet Services
- Colin Cook, Scottish Government
- Mandy Haeburn-Little, Scottish Business Resilience Centre
- Alexander Holt, Scottish Government
- Geoff Huggins, NHS Education for Scotland Digital Service
- Stephen Ingledew, FinTech Scotland
- Steven Kyle, Dundee City Council
- David McNeill, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations
- Deryck Mitchelson, NHS National Services Scotland
- Alastair O’Brien, Incremental Group
- Penni Rocks, Scottish Government
- Max Tse, National Audit Office
- Martyn Wallace, Local Government Digital Office
Get in touch
To discuss Audit Scotland’s work on digital or let us know what you think about this page, please contact:
Gemma Diamond, Senior Manager gdiamond@auditscotland.gov.uk
Morag Campsie, Audit Manager mcampsie@auditscotland.gov.uk