The Scottish Government

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SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION AND ASSOCIATED DEPARTMENTS

To be the most efficient and innovative central government in the UK, focused on effective delivery of public services and support for Ministers, and respected and trusted by our stakeholders.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 11.01 Categories of spending (Level 2)

Note:
1. Registers of Scotland is a self-funding body. No budget is therefore shown.

Table 11.02 Categories of spending (Level 2 real terms)at 2005-06 prices

What the budget does

The largest part of the Administration budget covers the costs of running the core administration of the Scottish Executive, which are mainly staffing and associated costs such as accommodation and training. This spending supports the delivery of the Executive's contribution to all of the objectives for the various Ministerial portfolios. This portfolio also includes the General Register Office for Scotland ( GROS), the National Archives of Scotland ( NAS) and the Registers of Scotland ( ROS) which all work to ensure that our records and registers are preserved, maintained and available to the people of Scotland. In everything that we do, we are committed to ensuring that we work to grow the economy, to promote equality and close the opportunity gap and to ensure that our activities are sustainable.

Statement of priorities

In 2006-07, we will focus our resources on delivering Ministerial priorities across all portfolios whilst ensuring the efficiency of the Department by improving value for money and releasing resources by delivering efficiency savings in administration costs of at least 2.5%. This will reflect the absorption of pay bill growth and inflation in non-pay costs without any net reduction in activity; and the real terms saving will be greater if activity increases. Achieving this will help to ensure that the percentage of total expenditure devoted to administration costs, across the core Executive and our agencies, remains at least 25% below the comparable percentage for the UK Government.

New resources and transfers

Our spending plans include the following changes made since the publication of Draft Budget 2005-06:

National Archives of Scotland

• Increase of £2m in 2005-06 due to transfers from General Register Office for Scotland of £1m in 2005-06 and £1m in 2006-07 following transfer of responsibility for the building works programme for the Scottish Family History Research Service.

Growing the Economy

We will grow the economy by:

• the effective management of public sector resources, one of the five key drivers of economic development set out in the Framework for Economic Development in Scotland. Our commitment and continuing focus on efficiency is demonstrated in our Efficient Government plans set out in Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government - Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity;

• providing the appropriate staffing in the relevant policy areas across the Executive;

• GROS and NAS continuing to develop the Scottish Family History Research Service, a one stop shop for family history research in Scotland - a catalyst for growth in genealogical tourism, increasing numbers of overseas visitors and associated spending within local economies (£3m); and

• NAS working with the Registers of Scotland to examine options for improving the procedures used in the operation of the property market in Scotland through a Sasine Imaging project (£500,000).

Closing the Opportunity Gap/Promoting Equality

Closing the Opportunity Gap

We will close the opportunity gap by:

• continuing to demonstrate good practice by reviewing and updating the Learning Strategy for Scottish Executive staff to meet the changing needs of government and the learning and development needs of staff, supporting career development and increasing employability;

• providing greater access to the records, by NAS, with many services being provided free; and

• NAS permitting direct access to computing facilities in Edinburgh.

Promoting Equality

We will promote equality by:

• continuing to strive to become an exemplar employer, to promote equality and become a more diverse organisation;

• placing a renewed focus on the mainstreaming of diversity across the organisation in accordance with the Diversity Strategy statement issued in December 2004;

• having set ourselves more challenging targets for 2008 for women in senior positions, staff from minority ethnic communities and disabled staff: we continue to work hard to achieve these targets and to develop the diverse culture of the organisation;

• continuing to work closely with Jobcentre Plus to support various new deal initiatives in the Scottish Executive;

• GROS making available demographic statistics which are often the key to measuring progress across a wide range of policy areas. The 2006-07 budget provision assigned to provide such statistics is £0.193m;

• modernising the customer service and support provided by NAS directly to visitors, by enhancing the variety and quality of work, particularly within the A Band;

• maintaining professional standards through training and development for staff, in line with similar national institutions; and

• maintaining disabled access and support, to encourage wider use of records.

Sustainable Development

We will enhance sustainable development by:

• delivering, through the effective management of our operations, the key priorities in Our Greening Government policy which are:

• sustainable consumption and production;

• climate change and energy;

• natural resource protection and environmental enhancement; and

• sustainable communities.

• developing Environmental Management Systems in 13 target buildings using the NHS-developed Greencode software;

• producing a new set of longer reaching targets for the Executive to meet the requirements of wider Scottish sustainability policies, following the publication of the Scottish Sustainable Development Strategy expected in November 2005;

• producing an updated Green Transport Plan to promote more sustainable travel choices within the Executive;

• reducing the amount of waste disposed to landfill from our estate by expanding our waste management contract to further Executive buildings; and

• NAS providing more services on-line and in conjunction with the Registers of Scotland, which has a direct impact on the efficient operation of housing transactions in Scotland.

ADMINISTRATION

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 11.03 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Note:
The breakdown of spending plans for 2005-06 onwards is subject to change as we seek to reduce overhead costs in favour of minimising the reduction necessary in the number of staff available for deployment to support existing and new priority activities.

What the budget does

The Administration Level 2 is focused on ensuring that as an organisation the Scottish Executive continues to be both efficient and effective. The largest part of the Administration budget covers the costs of running the core administration of the Scottish Executive, which are mainly staffing and associated costs such as accommodation and training. This spending supports the delivery of the Executive's contribution to all of the objectives set out in this document for the various Ministerial portfolios.

GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE FOR SCOTLAND

To collect, process, safeguard, and make available information about Scotland's people in a useful, responsible, and efficient way.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 11.04 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

What the budget does

Our budget for 2006-07 will enable GROS to undertake its functions that mainly stem from the Registrar General's statutory responsibilities. These include marking arrangements for taking periodic Censuses of Scotland's population and publishing population statistics; administering civil registration of vital events; maintaining the national Health Service Central Register; and making available public records about individuals to customers. The Registrar General also reports various demographic statistics matters to Scottish Ministers each year.

In 2006-07, as well as maintaining and improving our standard services, we will focus our resources on:

• investigating alternatives to a conventional census and the development of an integrated population statistics system using record linkage;

• making preparations for a major Census Test to be held in April 2006;

• preparing to introduce a Registration (Scotland) Bill that will result in a modern, efficient and more user friendly registration service; and

• completing and promoting the Scottish Family History Services (in conjunction with NAS and the Court of the Lord Lyon) and the use of improved access to records and services in the city centre campus.

We will continue to apply good Corporate Governance to the business of GROS, and will seek to improve the efficiency of our operations by working in a joined-up manner with other Departments in the delivery and procurement of services (for example, the Scottish Executive, the National Archives of Scotland and the Office for National Statistics).

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SCOTLAND

To select, preserve and make available the national archives of Scotland, promote proper archive provision, and lead the development of archive practice in Scotland.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 11.05 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

What the budget does

The National Archives of Scotland play an important role in Scotland's economic and cultural life. The property market in Scotland is dependent on the services provided by the NAS to legal searchers, while its historical records are much used in lifelong learning and are a major attraction for genealogists, which helps promote tourism. In addition to advising Scottish Ministers on records and information policy, the NAS advises Scottish public authorities about the creation and management of their records, it advises public and private owners about their historical records and it provides a reference service to the public on all aspects of the national archives.

In 2006-07, we will focus our resources on:

• completing and promoting the Scottish Family History Service Project (in conjunction with GROS and the office of the Lord Lyon) and the use of improved access to records and services in the city centre campus; and

• continuing to exploit technology to make our services more convenient to our customers and improve the information that we provide.

REGISTERS OF SCOTLAND

Our vision is to be recognised as one of the most effective and efficient land registries in the world and thus provide Scotland's citizens and institutions with the social and economic benefits that flow from a publicly guaranteed system of land and property registration. This will be achieved by compiling and maintaining accurate registers, improving both the breadth (coverage) and depth (of information available) in our registers and by developing complementary land and property information.

Objectives and targets

During the period 2005-2008, the Agency's corporate objectives are to:

• deliver the Agency's core business and meet the performance targets agreed with Ministers;

• deliver services to the satisfaction of our customers;

• implement the requirements of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure (Scotland) Act 2000 and the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003;

• introduce and develop electronic registration of land and property;

• increase Land Register coverage;

• reduce fees; and

• generate income by providing new services in response to our customers' needs.

Spending Plans 2002-08

Not applicable: ROS is a self-financing body, which covers its costs by charging for services.

What the budget does

Registers of Scotland Executive Agency is responsible for framing and maintaining 15 public registers in Scotland. The majority of its work is concerned with Scotland's property registers - the General Register of Sasines, the Land Register of Scotland and the recently launched Register of Community Interests in Land. In addition, it maintains 12 further registers which contain records of the activities of the courts and the Crown in Scotland.

In 2006-07, we will introduce substantial changes to our operational systems supported by new technology which will allow us to automate further our internal processes and introduce electronic registration. These system and process changes will result in substantial savings, currently estimated at £6.1m by 2007-08. In 2005-06, we reviewed the fees we charge for information provision: the adjustments proposed would lead to an overall reduction of some 9% in our income from these fees. This review is currently out to public consultation. We are beginning a review of the fees for registration, again with a view to a fee reduction overall, to be introduced in 2006-07.

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