The Scottish Government (, ) is the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in the capital city, Edinburgh. It has full legislative control over a number of areas, including education, healthcare, justice and the legal system, rural affairs, housing, the crown estate, the environment, emergency services, equal opportunities, public transport, and tax, amongst others.
The Scottish Government consists of the Scottish Ministers, which is the term used to describe their collective legal functions. The Scottish Government is accountable to the Scottish Parliament, which was also created by the Scotland Act 1998. The first minister is nominated by Parliament, then formally appointed by the monarch. The Scotland Act 1998 makes provision for ministers and junior ministers, referred to by the current administration as cabinet secretaries and ministers, in addition to two law officers: the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General for Scotland. The first minister selects ministers from the body of serving members of the Scottish Parliament, after which their appointment is approved by Parliament and the monarch.
Collectively the Scottish Ministers and the Civil Service staff that support the Scottish Government are formally referred to as the Scottish Administration. The Scottish Cabinet consists of the first minister and their deputy, cabinet secretaries, the law officers, the permanent secretary and Minister for Parliamentary Business.
History
The Labour Party included the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament in its manifesto for the 1997 UK general election. Tony Blair won a landslide victory, with a majority of 179. Blair then held a referendum on Scottish devolution in September 1997, with 1,775,045 people (74.2%) voting in favour in contrast to 614,400 (25.7%) voting against the proposal. The referendum result was recognised, and the Scotland Act 1998 created the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive, with many of the functions of the Scottish Office and the Secretary of State for Scotland being transferred to the new Executive. The new parliament and executive were also to have control over tax varying powers, and full legislative control over areas such as healthcare, education, policing, Scots law, environment, housing, local government, culture and some aspects of transportation, amongst others.
Subsequently, the Scotland Acts of 2012 and 2016 transferred powers over some taxation including Income Tax, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, Landfill Tax, Aggregates Levy and Air Departure Tax, drink driving limits, Scottish Parliament and local authority elections, some social security powers, the Crown Estate of Scotland, some aspects of the benefits system, some aspects of the energy network in Scotland including renewable energy, energy efficiency and onshore oil and gas licensing, some aspects of equality legislation in Scotland and gaming machine licensing.
The first Scottish Executive was formed by First Minister Donald Dewar as a coalition between the Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats. During this period, ministerial appointees were divided into ministers and deputy ministers. The Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition continued under subsequent First Ministers Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell. Following the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, Alex Salmond became the first politician from the Scottish National Party to lead the Scottish Government. He became first minister in 2007 and served in office until his resignation in 2014, with his former deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, succeeding him in November 2014.
In 2007, the administration of Alex Salmond began to use the name Scottish Government instead of Scottish Executive. The change of name was later recognised in United Kingdom legislation by the Scotland Act 2012. In 2001, former First Minister Henry McLeish had proposed such a change, but experienced some opposition. At the same time that the Scottish Government began to use its new name, a new emblem was adopted; it replaced the use of a version of the Royal Arms with the Flag of Scotland.
In 2012, the Scottish and UK Governments signed the Edinburgh Agreement, which outlined the terms for the Scottish Parliament to hold a single question referendum on the issue of whether Scotland should become an independent country again. The referendum was held on 18 September 2014. With record high voter turnout of 84.6%, the vote against independence won with 55.3%, while 44.7% voted in favour of independence. From 1 January 2021, the Scottish Government instructed all Scottish legislation be legally required to keep in regulatory alignment in devolved competences with future European Union law following the end of the Brexit transition period which ended on 31 December 2020 after the Scottish Parliament passed the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2020.
The Scottish Government's main headquarters are based at St Andrew's House in the capital city, Edinburgh. Additionally, the Scottish Government has offices at Victoria Quay, Saughton House and Bute House (the official residence of the first minister), all in Edinburgh, with an additional office at 5 Atlantic Quay in Glasgow. All ministers and officials have access to Scotland House at Victoria Embankment in London, when necessary. Dover House on Whitehall is now used by the Scotland Office and the devolved Scottish ministers no longer use it.
Functions Parliament
The Scottish Government is separate from the Scottish Parliament; parliament consists of 129 members (MSPs) elected by the Scottish electorate. The Scottish Parliament acts as the legislative body in areas for which the Scottish Government is responsible, called "devolved matters". The work of the Scottish Government, including proposed legislation, policies and activities, is scrutinised by parliament through a variety of different measures such as parliamentary debates, parliament committees and parliamentary questions to the appropriate Cabinet Secretary or government minister.
The Scottish Government is directly responsible for executing laws that have been approved by the Scottish Parliament. The party with the largest number of MSPs returned in parliamentary elections usually forms a government. As such, the Scottish Government is responsible for proposing most bills to the parliament for consideration and approval. If an overall majority in parliament approves a bill, it passes and is given royal assent by the monarch, becoming part of Scots law. Each law is sanctioned by the monarch using the Great Seal of Scotland.
Each year, the Scottish Government produces its annual budget for public spending which is presented to members of the Scottish Parliament for consideration. The Budget Bill is scrutinised by the parliamentary committees, and goes through three parliamentary stages before passing – a parliamentary debate on the general principles of the Budget Bill, any changes to the Budget Bill can be put forward to parliament by Scottish Government ministers, with such proposed changes being considered by the Finance and Constitution Committee, and lastly, MSPs determine whether any additional changes are required following the changes proposed by Scottish Government ministers, and members then vote on whether to pass the Bill. Similar to other acts of the Scottish Parliament, if the Budget Bill passes in the Scottish Parliament, it receives royal assent and becomes an Act of the Scottish Parliament.
Strategically, the first minister is the head of the Scottish Government, and not the head of the Scottish Parliament. The head of the Scottish Parliament is usually considered to be the presiding officer who is the speaker of the parliament and presides over all parliamentary business and debates. The Scottish Government is directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament, and both the government and parliament are directly accountable to the public of Scotland.
Legislation
The majority of bills proposed to the Scottish Parliament come from the Scottish Government. The process for introducing bills to the parliament for consideration and debate commences with the government publishing and formulating policy. A bill will only become law in Scotland under Scots law once it has been approved by a majority of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, where it will then be put to the Monarch to receive royal assent. Once royal assent has been given by the Monarch, the bill becomes a law of the Scottish Parliament and becomes embedded in Scots law.
Once a bill is successful in becoming law, the Scottish Government has the responsibility to ensure subordinate legislation, which often comes in the form of Scottish statutory instruments, is implemented accordingly so that the new law begins to work and that any additional measures and features can be added to make the law work and ensure its effective implementation and operation.
The Scottish Government produces a National Performance Framework (NPF) which sets out the government's priorities, objectives and overall vision for the country following election. First introduced in 2007, this framework acts a means to measure the performance of the government in eleven national outcome areas which include health, poverty, environment and education. It creates a pledge and commitment on the aspirations and aims that government wishes to create within the country, and serves as a means for the government to highlight national priorities and provides an opportunity for the government to evaluate its progress towards achieving the objectives as set out in the National Performance Framework. Each of the National Outcomes is measured by a number of indicators and associated data sets.UWS-Oxfam Partnership, Towards a Scotland that cares: A new National Outcome on care for the National Performance Framework, published November 2021, accessed 20 February 2023
Similarly, the Programme for Government is published annually by the incumbent Scottish Government, and it highlights the government's policies, proposed actions and legislation that the government will seek to implement in the forthcoming year.
Statistics and transparency
The Scottish Government publishes statistics based on the majority of public life in Scotland, including, but not limited to, education, the economy, healthcare, population, death, marriages and births, as well as living standards. The government uses such statistics to evaluate its work against the data to gauge how successful, or unsuccessful, government policy is and whether it is having the desired impact.
To ensure accountability, the Scottish Government publishes information for public consumption to ensure the work of the Scottish Government is accessible and transparent for the public. It commits itself to publishing information in areas relating to the spending of public money and creating a breakdown of public spending, the work of senior civil servants in the Scottish Government, including their job titles and salaries, as well as government assessment against objectives to highlight how well the government is doing in achieving the targets and objectives it creates through the National Performance Framework and Programme for Government. Additionally, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 gives the public the right to ask for information relating to the Scottish Government, as well as other public sectors.
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