Amid much euphoria Scotland’s new Parliament began its work in 1999. The full implications of devolution have still to be appreciated: turf wars have broken out between politicians in Edinburgh and Westminster, the roles of the list and constituency MSPs is causing friction, the future development of local authorities has still to be clarified, and there has been from early on a clear likelihood that devolution must surely lead to yet greater independence, particularly within the EU as well as (or instead of) the UK context. All that (and more) is still to evolve, but for now we have a new political and executive scene which is the subject of this latest new title from a specialist publishing house whose government directories have featured regularly in Reference Reviews.
It is, by and large, a comprehensive and fairly detailed guide to the new (and inherited) Scottish governmental scene. It begins, obviously, with the new Parliament, explaining its constitutional and administrative background and the devolved and reserved powers. All the MSPs are listed alphabetically with biographical details, in many cases with more detail than appears in the narrative entries on the Scottish Parliament Web site (but lacking the colour photographs). There is some variation in detail, such as names of secretaries or research assistants for only some MSPs. Tommy Sheridan can claim the briefest and least informative entry (with hardly any more detail in the Web site). Information is also listed for committee memberships, constituencies and a fairly detailed directory of officers of both the Parliament (including SPICe, the Scottish Parliament Information Centre) and the Executive.
Executive agencies and public bodies are listed, again with some detail. The potential and actual overlap between Edinburgh and Westminster becomes more obvious here as, correctly, quite a large number of bodies in England have also to be listed to give a more complete picture of executive functions (but generally with slightly less detail provided); there is some confusion here, particularly in our own field where LIC is inappropriately listed, but not SLIC, the Scottish Library and Information Council, which has the statutory obligation in Scotland to advise the minister on library and information matters.
Local authorities are also listed, complete with contact details for chief officers (and not a chief librarian among them), and then, lest we forget, the Scottish Westminster MPs, with biographical details much the same as for their Edinburgh counterparts. UK ministries, political parties, and some “other contacts” (a necessary list of other Scottish bodies not appearing in the other categories) and Scottish MEPs follow.
If this directory seems at times something of a mixed bag, that is probably due as much to the still‐transitory state of Scottish politics and government as to any other cause. At first sight the index looks a bit brief, but it includes the names of all the bodies and of keywords out of their titles. In the directory itself we find all the committees, MPs, MSPs, government and executive departments, quangos and the rest we would expect to be included, for the most part with quite a lot of useful detail including contact names and direct telephone numbers: all plays its part in the new spirit of open government North of the Border. This new title widens still further Carlton’s range of government directories and gives a pretty thorough picture of Scotland’s government and administration. Although most, if not all, the information could be found elsewhere, it would be from various different sources (yes, including Web sites): there is much convenience with this title of having all the information in one place in a directory which will be a useful addition to any Scottish collection, and no doubt for many others also outside Scotland which have dealings with or within the new governmental arrangements.
