£36m SNP digital fund pays just £6m
A fund designed to provide funding to businesses to develop their digital skills has paid out just more than £6m since it was announced in 2017, it has emerged.
In an answer to a written question by Scottish Conservative MSP Maurice Golden, the finance minister Kate Forbes said just over £6m had been distributed to businesses Digital Growth Fund .
When the fund was announced in 2017, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would result in £36m spent across three years in loans to businesses to improve digital skills in cyber security, data analytics and software engineering.
However, almost £30m is unspent by the Scottish Government.
Applications for the fund have risen year-on-year since it was opened in 2018/19 but only 121 businesses have benefited from the fund.
In its first year the fund paid out £854,229 to 21 businesses, with that rising to £1,806,984 to 43 businesses in 2019/20, and £3,452,995 to 57 businesses so far in 2020/21.
In total, £6,114,208 has been distributed to businesses through the fund.
Mr Golden, the Scottish Conservative’s economy spokesman, said more needed to be done to support businesses.
He said: “It is hugely disappointing that just a sixth of the digital growth fund has been paid out by the SNP Government in nearly three years.
“If it has taken the SNP so long to distribute so little of this fund, what hope can we have in them to rebuild our economy after the current pandemic crisis?”
Announcing the fund in March 2017, Ms Sturgeon said it was crucial to help provide the Scottish economy with the skills required in an economy
that is becoming more and more digitally focused.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Digital Development Loan (DDL) is demand led and remains open for eligible businesses to apply.
“We have doubled the funding for the Digitalboost support programme and introduced the £10m Digitalboost Development Grant which builds on the learning from the delivery of the Loan and
is not repayable. The grant scheme opened to applications last week and after a fantastic response we are exploring options to expand it.”