Digital

Foundations of the Digital State – Independent research report published

November 18, 2024 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Digital, Government

Blog post by Becca Fairless, Head of Strategy, Policy and Communications, Digital Directorate. 

Overview
This is a summary of the independent research report “Foundations of the Digital State” by Gordon Guthrie, a Digital Fellow of the First Minister’s Digital Fellowship Programme during 2023-2024. The research aimed to lay out a transformative roadmap for how governments imagine and deliver state digital systems.

The report proposes that governments need a single organisation with the capacity to make decisions about how digital systems should work, and that legislatures should oversee these decisions. It makes 26 wide-ranging recommendations to improve what the state does and how it does it. These include a strategic research function. Although the research is centred on Scotland the recommendations broadly apply to governments and legislatures all over the world.

Basis for research
A law is passed, and a computer system is born: The research started by questioning whether political structures, legislation, and delivery programmes were properly aligned to address citizens’ needs. Could this process be improved?

The design of a digital system – whether a banking app or a social security agency –begins with requirements. What must the new digital system do? There are two types of requirements:

1. Functional specifications – which describe what the system does.
2. Non-functional (or infrastructural) specifications – which describe how it does it.

The research notes that legislation is the origin of the requirements for new state digital systems. Yet legislative processes prioritise what a new digital system needs to do (the functional requirements). How it should do it (the non-functional requirements) are not usually set out in law. Instead, state officials and others across the globe rely on guidance, standards, and established best practice to enable implementation. The research illustrates this by examining legislation relating to the Scottish social security system. It argues that a disjoint between (and within) the functional and non-functional requirements can make effective digital delivery sub-optimal. The paper then considers how states might achieve better alignment of these processes.

United requirements for services and systems
The research considers how states make decisions about digital systems and concludes that two new bodies are required:

(a) a government body – with the power to consult on and issue technical standards, recommend changes to the law, and establish programmes of work; and,
(b) a parliamentary body – working under the supervision of a parliamentary committee to provide scrutiny and audit functions.

The former body would hold a consulting and prescribing role, the latter body an overseeing and enforcing one. These two bodies together would ensure there is a coherent and unified set of non-functional requirements attached to new legislation.

Improving service development
How can governments further improve digital systems? The research notes that developing digital systems is complex, and testing assumptions and getting feedback early can result in significant cost savings. It recommends moving design and testing to the very beginning of the process with integrated policy and delivery teams.

Developing a research function
One of the final recommendations is to strengthen the digital research capacity of governments, focusing research on how to improve the organisation of the state. A series of possible research topics are proposed, including: macro-economic modelling, reviewing the legislative processes for major digital programmes, and examining how local authorities implement digital solutions.

Recommendations
The research concludes with a set of 26 recommendations that include: publication of statistical information; widening access to data; law reform; parliamentary bill process reform, establishing new bodies and institutions, and supporting digital research.

Tags: Foundations of the Digital State, Independent research report, Law and Government

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