FOI/202500459045 · FOI · partially withheld
Breakdown of spend on IT systems and external consultancy services since 2016: FOI release
Information requested
A detailed breakdown of the £203 million spent on the IT system and external consultancy services since 2016. Specifically:
The total amount paid to each external company involved in the system’s development, maintenance, and administration. An itemised list of the services provided by these external companies, distinguishing between IT services, consultancy, staff provision and troubleshooting. The duration of each contract, and how often these contracts have been renewed or extended.
The performance and effectiveness of the IT system, including:
Evidence or reports that demonstrate improvements made to the system since its introduction (e.g., user satisfaction surveys, audit reports, performance metrics). Details of any audits or assessments carried out by the Scottish Government, or third parties, regarding the system’s performance, highlighting any persistent issues or failures. Records of feedback or complaints from the farming community about the system's functionality, and how the government has responded to those concerns.
The future of the IT system in light of the ongoing concerns:
Plans for upgrading, replacing, or further developing the IT system to meet new agricultural payment structures and the needs of Scottish farmers. A roadmap or timeline for any new developments, including how these changes will address existing issues. Information on any consultations, industry discussions, or studies conducted to assess the suitability of the current system for future agricultural policies and payments.
Response
1. The total amount paid to each external company involved in the system’s development, maintenance, and administration.
You can find details of the Scottish Government’s published expenditure on our website. Thus, this information has been withheld, under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you.
If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
The Scottish Government publish details of spend over £25,000. This information is published in monthly and annual reports. This information can be found at; Scottish Government spend over £25,000: monthly and annual reports filtering on the Directorate and Description filters below:
Year Directorate Description Description Description Description Description 2016/17 Agriculture, Food & Rural Communities IT Consultancy and Build - CAP Reform project IT Consultancy and Build IT Consultancy 2017/18 Directorate for Agriculture, Food & Rural Communities ICT S/W Licence additions IT Consultancy IT Consultancy and Build IT Development It H/Ware Additions 2017/18 Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Economy ICT S/W Licence additions IT Consultancy IT Consultancy and Build IT Development It H/Ware Additions 2018/19 Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Economy IT Consultancy & Build IT equipment IT Consultancy & Build It H/Ware Additions IT Consultancy and Build 2018/19 Directorate for Agriculture & the Rural Communities IT Consultancy & Build It H/Ware Additions 2019/20 Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Economy IT Consultancy & Build It H/Ware Additions AUD (INTAN) Additions 2019/20 Directorate for Agriculture & the Rural Economy IT Consultancy & Build It H/Ware Additions AUD (INTAN) Additions 2019/20 Directorate for Agriculture & Rural Delivery IT Consultancy & Build It H/Ware Additions AUD (INTAN) Additions 2020/21 Directorate for Agriculture & Rural Delivery IT Consultancy & Build It H/Ware Additions AUD (INTAN) Additions 2021/22 Directorate for Agriculture & Rural Delivery IT Consultancy & Build AUD (INTAN) Additions 2022/23 Directorate for Agriculture & Rural Delivery IT Build & Consultancy IT Build & Consultancy IT Build, Software & Consultancy 2022/23 Directorate for Agriculture & Rural Economy IT Build & Consultancy IT Build & Consultancy IT Build, Software & Consultancy 2023/24 Directorate for Agriculture & Rural Economy IT Build and Consultancy AUD (INTAN) Additions IT Software Supply & Maintenance Consultancy and IT Building System Support Costs - ItSD
2. An itemised list of the services provided by these external companies, distinguishing between IT services, consultancy, staff provision and troubleshooting.
I enclose a copy of the information you requested.
Please find enclosed Annex A, which lists the services provided by external companies, distinguishing between IT services, consultancy, staff provision and troubleshooting in conjunction with the duration of each contract, and how often these contracts have been renewed or extended in line with what you asked for in your request.
3. The duration of each contract, and how often these contracts have been renewed or extended.
I enclose a copy of the information you requested.
Please find enclosed Annex A, which lists the services provided by external companies, distinguishing between IT services, consultancy, staff provision and troubleshooting in conjunction with the duration of each contract, and how often these contracts have been renewed or extended in line with what you asked for in your request.
4. Evidence or reports that demonstrate improvements made to the system since its introduction (e.g., user satisfaction surveys, audit reports, performance metrics).
The Agricultural Digital and Data operations branch produce performance reports, previously monthly now on a quarterly basis. We have records of these going back to 2021.
From these reports we have extracted the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to system performance, mainly Rural Payments and services system ‘uptime’ and mean time between failure. Uptime relates to the percentage of time the system is available in a reporting period. The mean time between failure is the mean time a service is available before the next failure occurs.
Prior to March 2023, our metrics were derived from internal reports. The calculation of Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) during this period excluded planned downtime associated with maintenance releases. As such, MTBF figures during this time reflect performance based solely on unplanned outages.
From March 2023, the data collection method was revised to incorporate information sourced from our internal reports and uptime.com. This change in approach includes all instances of system downtime, encompassing both planned maintenance releases and unplanned outages. MTBF figures from this point forward provide a better view of system availability and reliability.
We have summarised these KPI’s in Annex B.
5. Details of any audits or assessments carried out by the Scottish Government, or third parties, regarding the system’s performance, highlighting any persistent issues or failures.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because after extensive searches of our records for audits and assessments specifically related to system performance, no documents were found in scope.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
6. Records of feedback or complaints from the farming community about the system's functionality, and how the government has responded to those concerns.
The Agricultural Rural and Economy (ARE) Rural Payments and Inspections Division does not maintain a separate record of formal complaints specifically about system functionality. When an IT issue is experienced by a User within the Farming Community, the user will typically contact their local Area Office. An Area Office colleague will then raise an IT support ticket via the ARE Digital & Data IT Service Desk if they suspect an IT fault has occurred. Therefore, while the IT Service Management tool contains records of IT Support tickets, these are not separately categorised or tracked as complaints.
The ARE Digital & Data Incident Management Team manage all incidents reported via the ARE Digital & Data IT Service Desk. Incident Managers searched through all support data for references to a complaint. Again, it is important to distinguish that these IT Support records are of incidents and incident resolution not complaints. There were 19 incidents recorded which reference a ‘complaint’ since 2020, 7 of these are duplicate reports by different Users during the same period of service disruption. Details of these incidents are provided in Annex C.
Please be aware in Annex C an exemption is applied under section 38(1) of FOISA (personal information). Disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.
7. Plans for upgrading, replacing, or further developing the IT system to meet new agricultural payment structures and the needs of Scottish farmers.
We continue to make payments to customers, more timely than ever with 99.92% system availability throughout the 2024 calendar year. As new user needs emerge, we will continue to iterate our digital systems in line with that need.
8. A roadmap or timeline for any new developments, including how these changes will address existing issues.
The Agricultural Reform Route Map sets out what future support will look like. We will continue to offer new developments, such as the launch of the Whole Farm Plan in 2025, via an iterative approach with the appropriate user engagement.
9. Information on any consultations, industry discussions, or studies conducted to assess the suitability of the current system for future agricultural policies and payments.
Our consultations with users and agents have been about their experience, not engaging directly on the current system and whether it works for future policies and payments. User research is being collated tobecome the as-is view of our current operating and service model. Future user research will look at new services and ways of delivering on policies and payments. However, this research will not address the suitability of current systems with users, but will instead focus on internal discussions to determine whether user needs or the target operating model can be supported by existing systems. If not, proposals for new digitally supported services will be progressed in line with Scottish Government policy.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, as no discussions on delivery system topics with external partners have taken place the Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
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Detected exemption language
Thus, this information has been withheld, under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Please be aware in Annex C an exemption is applied under section 38(1) of FOISA (personal information). Disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.