Creating a more digitally inclusive network
Eilidh McLaughlin, deputy director of digital ethics, inclusion and assurance at the Scottish Government outlines the importance of digital inclusion and the work being done to improve it.
Eilidh McLaughlin says that more inclusive digital public sector delivery will help increase trust in government, especially from those communities or individuals who feel excluded from digital services.
Trustworthiness is a particular point of concern for the Scottish Government, as the 2025 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey found that 46 per cent of people trusted the Government to work in the country’s best interests, the lowest figure since devolution began.
McLaughin says that improving digital ethics is key to increasing inclusive public sector delivery.
Digital ethics concerns the behaviour, activities, and decisions related to the digital world.
McLaughlin defines it as “how we document those decisions, how we research the evidence behind those decisions, and how we engage people in co-creating those activities and processes that become really important”.
To improve its digital ethics, McLaughlin says the Scottish Government is taking a holistic approach rather than breaking the issue down into its three individual strands; digital ethics, data ethics, and AI ethics.
McLaughlin says that the decision to take this approach was due to the significant degree of similarity and overlap between the three, so the Government “would be putting out the same information and potentially making it more confusing for everyone else”.
As part of this holistic approach, the Scottish Government will look at “high-level principles and frameworks that we can put out across the Scottish public sector”.
This involves the building of a standalone website where citizens will be able to find all information pertaining to digital ethics such as guidance, best practice, and advice.
This website will include the work done by the Government-funded Scottish AI Alliance which was created in 2021 to deliver Scotland’s AI Strategy 2026-2031.
One of these projects will be the ‘Living with AI’ online course, which was designed to help individuals understand and use AI.
“We cannot be efficient and effective with digital service delivery when the people who need it most, cannot use it.”
Eilidh McLaughlin, deputy director of digital ethics, inclusion and assurance, Scottish Government
Another project created by the partnership is the Scottish AI register, on which every public sector organisation in Scotland must officially declare their use of AI.
McLaughin calls the register “open and transparent, so people can then see exactly what we are doing”.
Digital inclusion
Digital exclusion, which refers to the barriers that prevent individuals or communities from accessing or effectively using digital technologies is a real problem in Scotland.
A 2024 Audit Scotland report found that 15 per cent of Scotland’s adult population lack foundation-level digital skills, while 9 per cent of Scottish households do not have access to the internet.
McLaughlin says: “It is the people who need those services the most, who use those services the most, who must be the focus of digital inclusion.”
She cites 2022 OFCOM statistics which show that of people who do not use the internet in the UK, 72 per cent are retired and aged 65 and over, 51 per cent have a disability, and 47 per cent receive benefits.
The danger of not improving digital inclusion, McLaughlin says, is that “then we are creating a divided digital society rather than taking the opportunity of an equal digital society”.
“We cannot be efficient and effective with digital service delivery when the people who need it most, cannot use it,” she adds.
McLaughlin says “data is fundamental” to improving digital inclusion, highlighting the need to “understand your demographic, understand what their connectivity possibilities are, and overlay the two”.
Continuing, McLaughlin says: “If you have people who are in your lowest index of multiple deprivation who are at a point of no connectivity, they are not going to get to a basic skills level, but if they are in a space of high connectivity, then there are interventions you can do.”
Minimum digital living standard
Part of the approach to address digital exclusion is the minimum digital living standard, a benchmark that defines a minimum of digital standard per household, such as download speed, devices, and sufficient knowledge.
This standard is currently used in both Scotland and Wales to monitor digital standards across the regions.
McLaughlin says that the standard can “be used as a design level for your services” to figure out the demographic that will be able to use the service “because you might not be reaching the person that you want to reach”.
Future work
The use of the minimum digital living standard is part of the Scottish Government’s new “systems-led approach” to improving digital inclusion.
Another part of this approach is the digital inclusion alliance (DIA) which brings together the third, private, and public sectors to solve the key challenges the Government has identified.
Challenges included a fragmented system, differing definitions of exclusion across organisations, and that the current models for addressing exclusion were not creating long-term, sustainable outcomes.
McLaughlin explains that the DIA will introduce an innovation community, alongside a centre of expertise containing cross-sectoral individuals and organisations that will help curate knowledge and measure progress.
The operational arm of the DIA will manage investment and coordinate with the innovation community to implement the solutions and projects it identifies.
Concluding, McLaughlin reiterates the need for collaborative work underpinned by digital ethics across government, the private, and the third sector to effectively tackle digital exclusion.
“If we do not do this systematically, if we do not tackle this in a design and outcomes-led way using ethics, we are never going to get where we want to be.”
