Scottish Executive

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Image:Scottish Executive logo (bilingual).png

The term Scottish Executive is used in two different, but closely-related senses: to denote the executive arm of Scotland's national legislature (i.e. the government), but also, somewhat confusingly, to denote the civil service supporting that executive.

1 Executive Arm of the Scottish Parliament
- 1.1 Ministers
2 United Kingdom Civil Service in Scotland
3 Permanent Secretary
4 See also
5 External link

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Executive Arm of the Scottish Parliament

Template:PoliticsScotland The Scottish Executive (Scottish Gaelic: Riaghaltas na h-Alba), as established by the Scotland Act 1998 is the executive arm of the Scottish Parliament, in other words the Scottish Government, a term used both by members of the Scottish Executive and by others. It consists of a First Minister, who leads the executive, and various ministers with individual portfolios and remits. The Scottish Parliament elects the First Minister and Executive, although any party/parties that can form a majority select the First Minister, who chooses the other members thereafter.

Similar to the UK-wide form of government there is no division between executive and legislature, with the members of the Scottish Executive being chosen from amongst the Members of the Scottish Parliament (except for the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland, who need not be MSPs). The members of the Scottish Executive are assisted by a number of junior Scottish Ministers, also chosen from amongst the Members of the Parliament. The members of the Executive are therefore able to influence, and in practice dictate legislation in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive is currently formed from a coalition between the Labour Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats. The current First Minister is Jack McConnell.

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Ministers

The current Ministers are:

For previous holders of Ministerial office, see List of Scottish Executive Ministerial Teams.

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United Kingdom Civil Service in Scotland

Image:Arms Scot Exec.jpg Image:Scottish royal coat of arms.png The term Scottish Executive is also used to describe the British civil service, as deployed in Scotland (formerly called the Scottish Office). This includes several thousand civil servants. The civil servants who work in the Executive are part of the United Kingdom civil service and work within the rules and customs of that civil service, but owe their day-to-day allegiance to the Scottish MinistersTemplate:Fact.

The Scottish Executive is divided into a number of departments:

The Scottish Executive also includes a number of agencies and oversees the work of a large number of Scottish public bodies.

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Permanent Secretary

The Permanent Secretary, who supports the First Minister, Cabinet and Scottish executive, is John Elvidge (since 2003). He is the senior civil servant in Scotland and is head of the management group of the Scottish Executive and of the Scottish Office of the Permanent Secretary (OPS).

Like other permanent secretaries, he is a United Kingdom civil servant and is answerable to the Cabinet Secretary for his professional conduct. He thus has some measure of independence from Scottish ministers, although his primary duty is to execute their instructions, just as other permanent secretaries execute the instructions of United Kingdom ministers.

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