THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT AI UNIVERSE

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AI entries — the full list

Every entry on this page, generated from data.json. Click a name to open its panel at the top of the page. Entries with one source are tagged "one source".

Entry	Type	First source	Confidence	ID

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Identity

As written in the research. Data as of 28 October 2026 (edition 2.1).

official nameThe Scottish Government

short labelScottish Government

govuk categoryDevolved government

govuk urlgov.scot/

headquartersSt Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG; lat 55.95365, lng -3.183896 (sources: https://www.aiscotland.scot/ — "Scottish Government, St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG"; https://www.gov.scot/about/who-runs-government/cabinet-and-ministers/minister-for-innovation-technology-and-tertiary-education/ — address "St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG"; https://api.postcodes.io/postcodes/EH13DG — latitude 55.95365, longitude -3.183896, admin district City of Edinburgh)

parent (as of 2026-10-28)none — devolved government accountable to the Scottish Parliament. SNP government led by First Minister John Swinney MSP after the May 2026 Scottish Parliament election (gov.scot cabinet page lists "John Swinney MSP: First Minister" and "Jenny Gilruth MSP: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government"). Minister holding "artificial intelligence policy and strategy": Alyn Smith MSP, Minister for Innovation, Technology and Tertiary Education, appointed 2 September 2026.

previous parent / parent changednone. Ministerial change: the 2026–2031 AI strategy (20 March 2026) was signed by Kate Forbes MSP (then Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic) and Richard Lochhead MSP (then Minister for Business and Employment); after the May 2026 election the AI brief sits with the Minister for Innovation, Technology and Tertiary Education (Ben Macpherson MSP, then Alyn Smith MSP from 2 September 2026).

blurbThe devolved government of Scotland; it sets Scotland's AI strategy, runs the Scottish AI Register of public-sector AI systems, funds AI adoption by firms, and issues AI guidance for Scottish public bodies.

website still shows old brandingpartly — the Scottish AI Alliance site (scottishai.com) still presents itself as delivering "Scotland's AI Strategy" with a footer "© Scottish AI Alliance 2025", though its March 2026 post says it has reached the end of its remit and points to aiscotland.scot. The 2026–2031 strategy page header names "Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government" while its foreword is signed by the then "Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic".

Gaps the research left open

15Shown as gaps, never filled in by guesswork. Supplement 1 (the second pass) closed some; they are listed below.

Mandatory basis of the Scottish AI Register: the only basis found is a ministerial policy announcement of 28 March 2024 (gov.scot; UKAuthority; PublicTechnology) saying registration "will soon be mandatory", starting with Scottish Government directorates and extending "in due course". No statute, regulation or start date was found. The register's About and Contact pages do not say registration is mandatory. The Digital Strategy delivery plan says only "continued use of the AI Register" by 2026, and Local Government plans its own "national AI Registry" by 2028. Treat "mandatory" as announced policy, not law, and its start date as unverified.
Register data quality: several register entries list "Scottish Government" as the organisation even where the user is Social Security Scotland, SCRA, NatureScot or the Emma Caldwell Inquiry. "Seals in rivers detection system" repeats the tidal-turbine text. No entry shows a first-published date; all show last published 07.10.2026. Most entries name no supplier.
Blocked or unreadable pages (permission request timed out or site refused): thedatalab.com, civtech.scot, parliament.scot home page, scottishaiplaybook.com, servicemanual.gov.scot (the AI guidance itself), spice-spotlight.scot (May 2026 cabinet), news.sky.com (re-election), spa.police.uk. gov.scot returned empty text for several pages (the 2021 strategy publication, the First Minister and Deputy First Minister pages, the gov.scot news release "Alyn Smith joins Government", "Improving lives through AI") and blocked search and some publications by robots (news/publication search, Digital Strategy delivery plan landing page, Health and Social Care Data Board minutes August 2026). The original directorate URL given in the brief failed; the working URL is /directorates/digital/. — Partly closed (Supplement 1): Funding body, founding year, CEO date and funding sums now in GOV-SCOT-041 (S1) and S3 Money SCOT-M08/M09. Home page and news front page still blocked; no Data Lab page read describes its AI Scotland role or a current AI programme budget. — Partly closed (Supplement 1): Round 12 deadline corrected to 23 October 2026 and stage dates added (S1 GOV-SCOT-042; S3 Upcoming dates); AI challenges in Rounds 10 and 11 (GOV-SCOT-075, GOV-SCOT-076). No CivTech head is named on any page opened. — Closed by Supplement 1: "… scottishaiplaybook.com" (GOV-SCOT-066 (S1): owner Scottish AI Alliance (© 2025), "in association with" The Data Lab; content listed. Launch date of the site still not shown.) — Closed by Supplement 1: "… servicemanual.gov.scot (the AI guidance itself)" (GOV-SCOT-057 and GOV-SCOT-044 (S1). The pages are undated and name no owning team.) — Partly closed (Supplement 1): Only 2024 AI posts could be opened (GOV-SCOT-079). The current cabinet comes from the gov.scot cabinet page (modified 16 October 2026); two cabinet secretaries added to S3 People. SPICe's May 2026 election posts were blocked. — Closed by Supplement 1: "… spa.police.uk" (GOV-SCOT-049 amended (SPA primary, 10 April 2025), GOV-SCOT-082 (national conversation), GOV-SCOT-083 (RFS review), GOV-SCOT-084 (review report due November 2026), GOV-SCOT-045/046/048 amended. SPA's LFR survey figures and FOI 2025-26-119 answers are in PDFs not read.)
Not found: name of the Director of Digital or a Scottish Government Chief Digital Officer; a Director-General for the Digital Directorate; any membership of the AI Scotland Expert Advisory Board; any AI Scotland budget; the National AI Adoption Programme 2026 budget and launch date (site says it "will be made available shortly"); the 2021 strategy's publication details from gov.scot.
Election and First Minister: the gov.scot cabinet page confirms John Swinney as First Minister and the May 2026 ministerial appointments, but the date Swinney was re-elected First Minister and the seat totals were not confirmed from an opened primary or serious source (Wikipedia says the second Swinney government formed on 20 May 2026 as an SNP minority — lead only, not cited as fact). — Partly closed (Supplement 1): Seat totals confirmed from parliament.scot (S3 Past events 2026-05-07). The date John Swinney was re-elected First Minister is still not on any page opened (gov.scot cabinet page gives no date; SB 26-25 does not name the First Minister; SPICe election posts and SB 26-26 blocked).
Bodies in scope with no AI record found in this session: Public Health Scotland, Scottish Enterprise's own AI grants (the Find Business Support "AI Adoption Feasibility Fund" page returned "no longer available"), Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland (both sit in Alyn Smith's portfolio), Transport Scotland, Scottish Water (named only in the strategy's data-centre layer), Scottish Information Commissioner, Scottish National Investment Bank AI investments, Police Scotland's own policy pages. No Scottish body appears in the UK ATRS organisation filter (38 organisations, checked 28 October 2026).
Scottish Parliament: no Session 7 AI inquiry found beyond the 8 September 2026 introductory evidence session. The content of the Committee's 6 January 2026 findings letter and the Minister's 23 March 2026 reply (PDFs) was not read. — Partly closed (Supplement 1): The 23 March 2026 reply was read; its annex sets out the committee's eleven points (S1 GOV-SCOT-051). The 6 January letter itself was not opened.
Scottish Approach to Service Design and AI: not found on any opened page (appears only as a blog category label and as a reference in the strategy's Layer 1).
Money: the 2026–2031 strategy itself states no budget. Only one Scottish public AI-specific sum (≈£1 million SME programme) was found; CivTech sums are not AI-specific. Lanarkshire, the Edinburgh supercomputer and Responsible AI UK sums are UK or private money and are recorded as link-only. — Partly closed (Supplement 1): CivTech 10 included two AI challenges (GOV-SCOT-076); CivTech 11 Accelerator awarded £35,000 each to three AI-product companies among twelve (GOV-SCOT-075; S4 2.4). No AI-only CivTech budget found.
Conflicts noted: strategy page header vs foreword ministerial titles; Lanarkshire community fund £540m (UK statement) vs £543m (trade press); GEMINI publication day (Glasgow 13 March vs Holyrood 9–10 March 2026); CivTech release title for Ivan McKee vs cabinet page title.
Several strategy-page facts came back from WebFetch as summaries rather than exact sentences; those are marked "[WebFetch summary]" and should be re-checked before quoting.
No fetched page attempted to give instructions.
Allowance: all 15 WebSearch calls used. Stopped after the searches ran out and the remaining domains were blocked.
Partly closed (Supplement 1): "… parliament.scot home page" / "no Session 7 AI inquiry found beyond the 8 September 2026 … session" — Committee and chamber work since 2023 added: GOV-SCOT-077 to GOV-SCOT-081, GOV-SCOT-051 amended, S3 Past events. Home page and the Session 7 ETE meetings list still blocked, so later Session 7 AI sessions cannot be ruled out.
Partly closed (Supplement 1): "Mandatory basis of the Scottish AI Register … Treat 'mandatory' as announced policy, not law" — The national guidance now says "You must record relevant AI systems in the Scottish AI Register" (GOV-SCOT-044; S4 2.2). Still guidance, not statute; no start date or definition of "relevant".

Closed by Supplement 1 (4)

The Data Lab / Scottish AI Alliance "coordinates not fetched" — S1b GOV-SCOT-008, 041
"… scottishaiplaybook.com" — GOV-SCOT-066 (S1): owner Scottish AI Alliance (© 2025), "in association with" The Data Lab; content listed. Launch date of the site still not shown.
"… servicemanual.gov.scot (the AI guidance itself)" — GOV-SCOT-057 and GOV-SCOT-044 (S1). The pages are undated and name no owning team.
"… spa.police.uk" — GOV-SCOT-049 amended (SPA primary, 10 April 2025), GOV-SCOT-082 (national conversation), GOV-SCOT-083 (RFS review), GOV-SCOT-084 (review report due November 2026), GOV-SCOT-045/046/048 amended. SPA's LFR survey figures and FOI 2025-26-119 answers are in PDFs not read.

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