Digital

Digital Licensing: Building a Smarter, Simpler Future for Licensing Services in Scotland

October 21, 2026 by deborahamzil No Comments | Category Digital Licensing, Digital Strategy for Scotland, Public Service Reform Strategy

Blog post by Mark Grey, Digital Licensing Service Owner in the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate. 

Licensing, permitting and registration services play a vital role in protecting communities, supporting businesses and enabling economic growth. The Scottish Government’s Digital Licensing solution provides an opportunity to help organisations deliver modern, user-centred services while benefiting from common tools, processes and capabilities. Today, the platform already supports services including tobacco and vaping registrations, food safety licensing, and burials and cremations, serving more than 15,000 businesses across Scotland’s local authorities.  

What is Digital Licensing? 

Digital Licensing is a digital platform designed to support licensing, permitting and registration services across Scotland. 

Rather than each organisation developing or procuring separate systems, Digital Licensing provides a reusable platform that can be configured to meet local needs while benefiting from shared infrastructure, common standards and ongoing improvements.

Built as part of Scotland’s wider digital transformation agenda, the platform supports end-to-end digital services, helping organisations modernise how applications are submitted, processed, managed and monitored. The platform is already integrated with shared services including ScotAccount, GOV.UK Pay and GOV.UK Notify, helping organisations accelerate delivery while aligning with Scotland’s wider digital infrastructure.  

Why Digital Licensing Matters 

By adopting a common digital foundation, public sector organisations can focus on delivering high-quality services while benefiting from technology that has already been developed, tested and proven in live environments. Early adopters are already seeing significant benefits, including reduced administrative effort, improved data quality and greater consistency across services.  

Reduced Administrative Burden 

Many licensing teams spend significant time on administration. 

Digital Licensing introduces automation, streamlined workflows and improved case management capabilities that allow staff to spend less time on routine processing and more time delivering value, supporting compliance and engaging with communities. In some services, this has helped save up to 77 hours per officer each month, enabling more time to be spent on frontline activity and inspections. 

Better Data and Insight 

Reliable data is essential for effective decision-making. 

The platform supports improved data quality, reporting and visibility, helping organisations gain better insight into service performance, regulatory activity and emerging trends. Organisations using the platform have reported substantial reductions in duplicate records and improved confidence in the quality of operational data. 

A Platform That Is Already Delivering 

Digital Licensing is not simply a vision for the future. 

The platform is already supporting live services and delivering benefits for thousands of users. More than 15,000 businesses have used services delivered through the platform, with organisations reporting reductions in duplication, improved efficiency and significant administrative time savings for operational teams.  

This means new adopters can benefit from proven technology, established delivery approaches and a growing community of organisations working towards common goals.

Local Delivery, Shared Foundations 

One of the most common concerns around shared platforms is the fear of losing local control. 

Digital Licensing has been designed specifically to avoid this. 

Organisations retain ownership of their services, policies and operational decisions while benefiting from a shared technical foundation. Local flexibility remains, but without the need to solve the same technology challenges independently. 

In short, it is about enabling collaboration without compromising local autonomy.  

Looking Ahead 

As Scotland continues its journey towards modern, user-centred public services, Digital Licensing represents an opportunity to rethink how licensing, registration and permitting services are delivered. 

By working together on shared foundations, public sector organisations can reduce duplication, improve services, strengthen data quality and create better outcomes for citizens, businesses and staff alike. 

The challenge facing us is not whether licensing services should become digital. It is how we can do so in a way that delivers the greatest value for Scotland. 

Digital Licensing provides a practical, proven route towards achieving that ambition.  

Scotland’s Digital Licensing platform

Local delivery. Shared foundations. National impact. 

Get involved   

Learn how you could join Scotland’s Digital Licensing platform by emailing: CBSD@gov.scot 

Tags: common digital foundation, digital licensing platform, digital public services

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