Scotland: The Devolved Legislature and Administration
The Scotland Act 1998 created two key institutions - the Scottish Parliament as the devolved legislature for Scotland, and the Scottish Executive, the devolved administration.
The Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament has full legislative powers over devolved matters and its laws are known as ASPs (Acts of the Scottish Parliament).
The Scottish Parliament is composed of 129 Members, or MSPs. These are divided between 73 ‘Constituency MSPs’ (who are elected on a ‘first-past-the-post’ system to represent a particular constituency) and 56 ‘regional members’. There is no difference between the roles played in the Scottish Parliament by MSPs once elected, however they were elected.
Elections
Each voter in a Scottish Parliament election therefore has two votes; one for a constituency member and one for a political party (or individual candidate) within one of eight larger electoral areas known as Scottish Parliament Regions.
The seats for ‘regional members’ are allocated to political parties on an Additional Member System (a form of proportional representation) according to the number of constituency seats they won and the number of votes received in the regional ballot.
The system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament encourages participation from smaller parties and increases the likelihood of coalition or minority government.
The Scottish Executive
The Scotland Act 1998 created a Scottish Executive consisting of the First Minister, other ministers appointed by the First Minister, and the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General for Scotland. These are referred to collectively as ‘Scottish Ministers.’
The Scottish Executive is responsible for functions of government within Scotland as far as they extend to devolved matters. Most of its powers, functions and machinery were inherited from the former Scottish Office and other UK government departments operating in Scotland.
Since 2007 the Scottish Executive has also been known as the Scottish Government. While in legal documents (such as contracts) it must be referred to as the Scottish Executive, in keeping with the language of the Scotland Act, the term Scottish Government has become widely used in most other contexts.
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