Ivan McKee: Data skills ‘more important than ever’

Data analysis is the “beating heart” of the public sector, public finance minister Ivan McKee has said.

In his address to Holyrood’s Public Sector Data Summit 2025, McKee urged delegates to place data at the heart of their plans, citing its potential to “deliver better public services, improve lives and strengthen communities”.

He said: “Data can be described as the lifeblood of our public services. Every GP appointment, every council tax payment, every benefit awarded, every transaction generates data.

“That's held carefully by the public sector. And I suppose if that data is the lifeblood, our ability to analyse, share and reuse that data for better decisions and insights could be described as the beating heart of the system.”

He added: “It's too often been an afterthought in new policies and programmes of work. We need to raise its profile and make the skills to successfully steward and govern our data assets.”

McKee said data is “essential” for Scotland to be part of the artificial intelligence revolution and to develop digital services that are “simple to access and meet people's needs”.

He said: "Developing sustainable and reusable public sector data is needed to improve the design and delivery of public services across Scotland.

However, he indicated current systems are not equipped to deal with the data available and urged public sector leaders to develop strategies to plug the gap. 

He said: “The sheer volume of public sector data, the variety of formats and ensuring its veracity can all be time consuming. Even to the most resourced teams.

“And our systems need to be designed to support that work. So, we can only reach the scale of change that Scotland needs through the support of a strong data ecosystem.”

It comes as the Scottish Government is amidst refreshing its digital strategy, four years since its last update.

Meanwhile, south of the border, the UK Government is working on a National Data Library of public sector data. The initiative will give researchers access data set to develop their AI models, in a move which is hoped will transform public services and quality of life.