The Scottish Government (Scottish Gaelic: Riaghaltas na h-Alba, Scots: Scots Govrenment) is the executive branch of the devolved government of Scotland. It is accountable to the Scottish Parliament.
The government was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive under section 44(1) of the Scotland Act 1998. It was formally renamed in law as the Scottish Government at the beginning of July 2012, when section 12(1) of the Scotland Act 2012 came into force.
The Scottish Government is led by the First Minister, who selects all the remaining Cabinet Secretaries and junior Ministers. The First Minister and the Cabinet Secretaries constitute the Cabinet.
Read more about Scottish Government: Executive Branch of Government, Civil Service, Change of Name
Famous quotes containing the words scottish and/or government:
“Better wear out shoes than sheets.”
—18th-century Scottish proverb, collected in J. Kelly, Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs (1721)
“I wish my countrymen to consider that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it. A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)