About

How ScotPayments works 

We designed ScotPayments based on: 

• user needs 
• a common platform 
• banking and cyber security standards 

User-centred design 

Before we started designing, we talked to the future users of ScotPayments to understand their needs and develop a service that would work for them. We are continuing to work with users to make sure ScotPayments meets their needs. This is called user-centred design. 

We designed ScotPayments to be user-friendly and accessible for everyone. It is built and assessed against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). 

We also aim to support people living in Scotland who are unable or unwilling to receive payments via a traditional bank account. 

Common platforms 

A common platform is a piece of technology that lots of different teams can use. 

Common platforms are designed so that everything can be done with a single piece of technology. It usually replaces lots of old software. When using a common platform, you:

• will not need to use different software for all the things you need to do
• can use only the parts you need
• make it as big or as small as you need it to be

Building a single platform for lots of services means that it can be used across the Scottish public sector. It'll be quicker for you to and set up new services and retire old services.

There are more than 200 public bodies in Scotland. These public bodies currently make more than 5 million payments a year. This is expected to increase to more than 20 million payments a year. Using one system for all these payments can help reduce costs and risks. It can also help to create a better user experience. 

Common platforms put user needs first, share standards across an organisation and are future-proofed.

Hosting ScotPayments on a common platform is in line with our Digital Strategy. 

The benefits of using ScotPayments 

By using ScotPayments, you’ll benefit from improved: 

• user experience through reducing friction in the payment process 
• digitisation to reduce error and time from manual processing  
• cost efficiency and streamlined operations  
• security and compliance with stronger security measures in place to protect user data as it is transmitted between users and recipients 
• transparency making it easier for users to track payment history, view payment status and manage payments details  
• capability to detect with monitoring across government allowing for patterns of behaviour to be detected which otherwise would be invisible 
• data management - it’s easier to collect, manage and analyse data in a more accurate and efficient way