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I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

NRS operates an information security governance and assurance structure aligned to ISO 27001 and HM Government security framework.

Personnel are vetted and undertake mandatory security and data protection training. NRS routinely uses data protection impact assessments to identify and address privacy risks. Regular IT Health Checks are completed and vulnerabilities remediated. Security event monitoring and alerting is in place. Risk management, asset controls and reporting processes are used to manage technology risk.

NRS has achieved Cyber Essentials Plus certification and accreditation as a data processing environment under the Digital Economy Act.

Scottish Government marketing and advertising spend is published each year and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ including a breakdown by media type.

To date, £32.2m funding committed through the Memorandum of Understanding has been spent. A breakdown of this figure, along with explanatory detail, is provided below:

Registers of Scotland is a non-Ministerial Public Body answerable to the Scottish Parliament.

RoS formally surveys its customers (professionals and citizens) twice a year through the Customer Services Institute to benchmark customer satisfaction and customer effort. RoS uses the information provided to make improvements to RoS’s services. RoS consistently achieves customer satisfaction scores and customer effort scores that are significantly better than the public sector benchmark.

In addition, RoS adheres to the Scottish Approach to Service Design (https://www.gov.scot/publications/the-scottish-approach-to-service-design/) with activity including research sessions. Around 250 such sessions were held during the last year along with 20 live webinars for customers spanning 14 topics of customer/user interest.

RoS have a monthly accessibility clinic working alongside colleagues from the Scottish Government and regularly research with customers to ensure their services follow the web content accessibility guidelines, (wcag 2.2 www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/ ).

RoS also maintains an effective network meeting regularly with key stakeholders including lenders, UK Finance, and The Law Society of Scotland’s Property Law Committee ensuring visibility and opportunity for lenders, solicitors and conveyancing professional bodies and individuals to contact them with questions, improvement suggestions or service delivery concerns.

Advertising effectiveness is evaluated in a range of ways. Firstly, figures are provided to show the reach (how many people we reached) and frequency (how many times we reached them), both overall and by advertising channel. These figures are calculated by the Scottish Government’s independent media planning and buying agencies, using audited sector data where available.

Registers of Scotland is a non-Ministerial Public Body answerable to the Scottish Parliament and is subject to regular scrutiny from the Economy and Fair Work Committee, including on the work it is delivering to improve operational efficiency.

The Scottish Government has visibility of the strategic objectives set out in the RoS Corporate Plan 2022-2027, including the work outlined therein to improve operational efficiency and reduce headcount. The Scottish Government receives regular reporting on the progress with these aspects through the various Public Service Reform commissions.

The Scottish Government publish their annual marketing spend on https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ which is broken down by portfolio, specific campaign and campaign media and available for public to view.

I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

NRS is a member of the Institute of Customer Service and participates in an annual Business Benchmarking Survey. The survey focusses on evaluating customer satisfaction levels. In 2024, 85.7% of customers were satisfied with the services delivered by NRS, set against a public services national average of 73.6%.

When exploring any changes or improvements in service provision, NRS engages with customers through appropriate survey channels. NRS monitors customer use of services through quarterly reporting. NRS operates various social media platforms that are used to engage with the public and gather feedback.

NRS also continues to review its KPIs on a yearly basis to reflect use of services.

I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

NRS has differing processing times depending on the nature of the request. NRS monitors these timescales through robust Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are regularly reviewed and refined, taking into account customer feedback through all of our channels.

Currently, all the timescales are being met at 98% and above. Details of KPIs and the latest associated performance measures can be found on page 13 of our Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24.

In Scotland, there is no funding out with the advertising spend that is allocated for community radio stations. The selection of the stations for campaigns is determined by the target audience and reach. Information on individual advertising spend per radio station is not available to us as this is deemed commercially sensitive.