page_title: Politics of Scotland
section_title: The Scottish Parliament
hierarchical_section_title: Politics of Scotland / The Scottish Parliament
caption_attribution_description: Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburg
context_page_description: Scotland is a country which is in a fiscal and political union with the rest of the United Kingdom. It was directly governed by the British Government from 1707 until 1999, when a system of devolution re-established a Scottish Parliament with control over much of Scottish law.
  Scotland entered into a union with England in 1707, and since then has sent representatives to the Palace of Westminster, which evolved into the Parliament of England to become the British Parliament. Currently, 59 members of Parliament represent Scottish constituencies at Westminster, and issues such as the constitution, foreign affairs, defence, social security, pensions, issues of medical ethics, and fiscal, economic and monetary policy are decided on a nationwide UK level. In 1999, a 129-member Scottish Parliament was established in Edinburgh; it has full power to make law in Scotland, except in reserved matters. In the UK government, Scottish affairs are represented by the Secretary of State for Scotland, currently Alister Jack MP.
context_section_description: The election of the Labour government in 1997 was followed by a referendum in Scotland on establishing a devolved Scottish Parliament. 74.3% of voters agreed with the establishment of the parliament and 63.5% agreed it should have tax-varying powers, which meant that it could adjust income taxes by up to 3%.
  The Parliament was then created by the Scotland Act 1998 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster Parliament). This Act sets out the subjects still dealt with at Westminster, referred to as reserved matters, including Defence, International Relations, Fiscal and Economic Policy, Drugs Law and Broadcasting. Anything not mentioned as a specific reserved matter is automatically devolved to Scotland, including health, education, local government, Scots law and all other issues. This is one of the key differences between the successful Scotland Act 1998 and the failed Scotland Act 1978.
  The Parliament is elected by a mixture of the first past the post and proportional representation electoral systems, namely, the additional members system. Thus the Parliament is unlike the Westminster Parliament, which is elected solely by the first past the post method. The Scottish Parliament is elected every four years and has 129 members, referred to as members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). Of the 129 MSPs, 73 are elected to represent first past the post constituencies, whilst the remaining 56 are elected by the additional member system.
  The proportional representation system has resulted in the election of a number of candidates from parties that would not have been expected to get representation through the first past the post system.
  A devolved government called the Scottish Executive (renamed Scottish Government in 2007) was established along with the Scottish Parliament in 1999, with the first minister of Scotland at its head. The secretariat of the Executive is part of the UK Civil Service and the head of the Executive, the permanent secretary (presently Leslie Evans), is the equivalent of the permanent secretary of a Whitehall department.
caption: The debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament Building.
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