Exclusive:Scotland can be world leader on digital services, says former FM

Jack McConnell said Scotland should launch an app where the public can access all UK and Scottish government services easily.

This would include a person’s birth certificate, passport and health records.

The UK government has tried a similar proposal with its digital ID scheme.

Despite being a popular idea before the plans were put forward, the mandatory nature of it seems to have turned the public against the proposal. The plans have since been rolled back.

Lord McConnell - who led Scotland between 2001 and 2007 - said this presented an opportunity for Scotland to “get ahead” of the rest of the UK, much like his government did with its public smoking ban.

He said: “The big example I would give would be on digital public services.

“If you go to either Estonia or now actually Ukraine - in the middle of a war - these countries are far ahead of anybody else in the world on digitizing public services.

“In Estonia or Ukraine, you can get almost every public service on an app.

“You can get your birth certificate, your passport, your register for education, your health service - all of these things are available now digitally.

“They are leading Eastern Europe, but they're also leading the world in this.

“Why not have an ambition for Scotland to lead Western Europe to lead the UK on this?

“The response of Scottish politicians to even a debate about digital public services on a digital app in the UK was to say ‘we don't want anything to do with that’.

“Instead of saying ‘we're going to be even better than them. We're going to show the right way to do it.

“‘We're smaller, we'll do it faster, we'll do it better, and we'll show them, and then we'll get a reputation’.

“Scotland could be just as well known for having done this in Western Europe, as Estonia or Ukraine are now known for doing it in Eastern Europe.

“So, where's the level of ambition that gets us there?

“Instead, what we've got is the one example we have in this country of digital access to public services is the NHS app in England.

“Scotland is seven years behind. Dragging our feet, delivering a poorer service for Scots, but also again not seeing the potential.”

He said this would attract business to Scotland.

Lord McConnell said: “We should be ahead of the game in the UK. We could be leading the UK on digitisation and in the digital economy.

“We could be attracting new companies to come to Scotland. We could be boosting start-ups in Scotland.”

He continued: “If I was First Minister today, the area that I would be spending most of my time on would be: how do we in the public and the private sphere make Scotland the digital place?

“And how do we show the rest of UK outdo it rather than worry about the fact that they're so far ahead of us?”

Two of the most heralded policies brought in by Lord McConnell during his time in office were the indoor smoking ban and the Fresh Talent visa scheme - which allowed overseas graduates at Scottish universities to stay on in the country.

Lord McConnell said: “We led the UK on the smoking ban and we led the UK on the Fresh Talent Initiative.

“They were both successful because we were thinking ambitiously, and persuading, challenging others to follow us.

“I think that's what's missing at the moment, is... I think we're not, there's far too much debate about whether or not to leave the UK, instead of actually debating how do we lead the UK.”

He said that both of these major policies “sent a signal” about the direction Scotland was going in.

Lord McConnell said that a digital services app could do the same and cause the rest of the UK and Europe to take notice.

He said: “The smoking ban was partly about sending a signal that the old image of Scotland is an unhealthy place, where you really wouldn't want your kids too exposed to some of the ways of life, that that was over and that Scotland could be a modern cosmopolitan country.

”People laughed at that and now you look at the bar and restaurant culture in Scotland.

“It was possible to have a different view and to send out a signal that then encourages people to invest and to believe in their ideas.

”And similarly on fresh talent, it was about sending a signal that we're open for business, and it was, it was basically saying to people inside the UK, as well as elsewhere in the world, Scotland is a place to come to.

”But you need, you can't just run an advertising campaign on that. You need something that's symbolic that you've done, that's a bit risky as a government, which proves it. You prove it by doing the risky thing.

“I think you could do the same thing again. If we were to say, in Scotland, we will have a digital app that covers all the public services, we will negotiate with the UK government to get UK government services on that app, as well as Scottish government services.

“Do it as an experiment that could then be copied throughout the rest of the UK, because they're being far too slow.

“We're going to get ahead of the game here, rather than fall behind the way we did on the NHS app.

“I think people would sit up and take notice and go, ‘wow, Scotland's on the move’.

“The symbolic nature of risk taking and radical initiatives is almost as important as the practical delivery of it.”

Lord McConnell was speaking ahead of the Scotland 2050 conference which takes place at the Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh on Tuesday. Free tickets are available at www.scotland-2050.co.uk.