Digital
ScotAccount: transforming public services in Scotland
July 16, 2025 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Digital, Digital Identity, Digital Scotland, ScotAccount
Blog by Trudy Nicolson, Programme Director for the Scottish Government’s ScotAccount programme.
It has been a busy period for the ScotAccount team, and we wanted to mark that by sharing an update on our progress.
We are delighted to report that the service goes from strength to strength in supporting the modernisation of public services across Scotland, making them more accessible and efficient for everyone.
We are working with more services than ever and continuing to make improvements across ScotAccount with more to come.
What is ScotAccount?
ScotAccount is the secure and simple way for people to prove who they are and that they are eligible for a public service or benefit online.
Currently, people use ScotAccount to sign into a range of public services in Scotland, including disclosure checks, witness gateway, debt management, registration to sell tobacco and vapes, registration of organisations operating within the funeral sector and to register and manage finance raised against “moveable assets” such as livestock, machinery, vehicles, and stocks and shares. For a full list of services currently using ScotAccount visit mygov.scot.
Using ScotAccount, people can:
- Sign in using two-factor authentication (which is available to public services as a stand-alone feature)
- Verify their identity (if required) by photo ID or security questions, protecting them against fraud and making sure they get the services they are entitled to
- Save their digital identity to reuse with other public services, meaning they don’t need to repeat the same verification processes again and again.
Our journey so far
ScotAccount has followed an agile, user-centred development approach, progressing through discovery and alpha, and now into public beta.
Each phase has helped us better understand user needs and refine the service and this continues.
During the early stages of beta, we worked closely with a small group of service providers to test functionality, identify issues, and gather targeted feedback. We have also, to date, had over 1,000 people take part in user research, helping us shape a service that works for a wide range of needs. For example, we’ve introduced an alternative identity verification method, using security questions, for users without photographic ID. We’re also exploring vouching-based approaches to support even more inclusive access.
Since launching with Disclosure Scotland in February 2023, ScotAccount now supports the full online disclosure journey – from application to results – eliminating paperwork and speeding up processing. This supports over 450,000 online applications per year, and we’re continuing to scale by partnering with more public services.
Looking ahead, we are supporting major programmes like the health and social care ‘Digital Front Door’ as steps continue to be taken to transform Scotland’s public services.
ScotAccount is an important component in these efforts, reducing the need for those services to develop, maintain or pay for multiple sign ins or online identity verification checks that would otherwise be necessary. This demonstrates the reusability of Scottish Government common components and the contribution they are making to enhance digital public services ultimately saving time, money, and effort for users and public services.
Over the last year, we’ve also been growing our team ensuring we have the skills in-house to run, maintain and develop ScotAccount, meaning we have less reliance on external delivery partners. To support this shift, ScotAccount has been transitioning away from the use of third-party software engineering suppliers. This carefully managed transition has facilitated the effective transfer of skills and knowledge to our in-house team.
Get Involved
We invite public sector organisations in Scotland to get in touch with us to learn about the benefits of ScotAccount. Whether your service is already live or in development, you can see how ScotAccount works by joining our test environment.
How to get started:
For more info:
Tags: digital, digital identity, digital public services, ScotAccount
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