Urban Tide is developing a groundbreaking data insights platform that will significantly enhance fiscal transparency for the Scottish Government.

In 2021, the Government made a public commitment to Fiscal Openness and Transparency as part of its Open Government action plan. Part of this commitment was to deliver a technology platform that would improve data standards and transparency around the generation and spending of public money. 

UrbanTide is creating this custom technology solution, which will collect, aggregate and standardise all sources of government fiscal data in Scotland, to make it more open, accessible and transparent to the public.

The challenge with Scotland’s fiscal data

As devolution has continued, The Scottish Government has gained more control over the money it makes and spends. As a result, Scotland now generates a significant amount of its own revenue (36% in 2019-20). 

This increased autonomy means the government can have more flexibility in implementing economic and social policies to achieve its goals. But while these additional powers aim to enhance financial accountability and scrutiny, it has also made the process of tracking fiscal information more complex.

This has resulted in calls from stakeholders and the public to improve transparency and make it easier for them to ‘follow the money’. In other words, to track the flow of money into government and have a clearer understanding of how they choose to spend it.

Tracking the flow of fiscal data is difficult in Scotland right now because of the following reasons: 

• Fiscal data isn’t centralised: Multiple government departments and external organisations (e.g. think tanks, and academic institutions) all own and publish core fiscal information independently. Nothing is centralised.
• Fiscal outputs are scattered: Any publicly available fiscal data is distributed across a variety of different websites. There’s no single centralised space to view the data.
• Data is managed manually: Fiscal outputs are often created manually by government staff using data from a complex network of spreadsheets.
• Fiscal data is published infrequently: Limited amounts of open fiscal data are available online.
• Data is inaccessible: Public fiscal data tends to be comprised of complex, text-heavy documents with embedded data tables and charts that are difficult for the public to understand
• Varying user types and needs: Different user types with varying needs and competencies in understanding fiscal information.

uSmart: The perfect fiscal data insights solution

UrbanTide is currently working with the Scottish Government to develop a custom data insights platform that will make collecting, tracking and sharing fiscal data easy. 

The platform is currently in its beta phase, and is a solution built on UrbanTide's existing uSmart data insights platform.

The tool will gather data from various government departments and external organizations and make it publicly available on one easy-view centralised platform. Data will be standardised to provide a unified and consistent view of public finances, making it easy for anyone to easily access and understand where money is coming from and where it's being spent.

By standardising and opening up fiscal data like this, this will enhance financial accountability and increase trust in government data.

What the platform aims to achieve 

Here are 6 goals the procurement platform aims to achieve.

1. Greater fiscal transparency - to provide a clear, unambiguous and consistent view of the country’s revenues and expenditures (both current and historic).
2. Make data accessible - to provide different views of the data depending on user type and need (e.g. parliamentarians, journalists, economic think tanks, citizens, etc.).
3. System Integration - to develop automated data pipelines and system integration to streamline the process of data collection and standardisation.
4. Credibility & Investment - to strengthen the credibility of Scotland’s fiscal plans and underpin market confidence.
5. Data Visualisations - to build flexible, intuitive and attractive data visualisations that expand public understanding and provide a holistic picture of public finances that’s easy to understand. 
6. Data Quality - to improve the quality of fiscal data at multiple levels so we can “follow the money”. Fiscal transparency provides demand for better data.

Opening up data for the future of Scotland

By investing in UrbanTide's custom data insights platform, the Scottish government is taking a significant step toward achieving greater fiscal transparency. When the public can see clearly where public money is generated and where the government is choosing to spend it, this promotes trust and accountability.

If Scotland votes to become independent, having a true and credible understanding of the financial position of the country will also prove its position in the world market.

By harnessing the power of data analytics, this platform will pave the way for more informed decision-making, effective policy implementation, and increased public trust in the management of public finances.

As we continue developing and refining the platform in its beta phase, we are confident that uSmart will transform fiscal transparency, bolster financial accountability, and foster trust in government data.