[Edit] Directorates

In 2007, the individual Departments of the Scottish Government were abolished and the work is now carried out by a collection of Directorates, each headed by a Director-General (DG) . The Permanent Secretary and Directors-General (formerly the Department heads) now form a Strategic Board, responsible for overseeing the achievement of the five strategic objectives.

• Office of the Permanent Secretary

• Scottish Government Education Directorates

• Scottish Government Health Directorates

• Scottish Government Justice and Communities Directorates

• Scottish Government Environment Directorates

• Scottish Government Finance and Corporate Services Directorates

[Edit] Strategic Board

The Strategic Board is the 'top table' for the organisation, it consists of the Permanent Secretary along with six Director Generals and three non Executive Directors.^[14]

In 2007, the Scottish Government set for itself an overall purpose:

"To focus Government and public services on creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth."

Each Director General leads the task on delivering one of the Government's strategic objectives, resulting from this purpose:

Wealthier and Fairer : "Enable businesses and people to increase their wealth and more people to share fairly in that wealth."

Healthier : "Help people to sustain and improve their health, especially in disadvantaged communities, ensuring better, local and faster access to health care."

Safer and Stronger : "Help local communities to flourish, becoming stronger, safer place to live, offering improved opportunities and a better quality of life."

Smarter : "Expand opportunities for Scots to succeed from nurture through to life long learning ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements."

Greener : "Improve Scotland's natural and built environment and the sustainable use and enjoyment of it."

[Edit] Permanent Secretary

The Permanent Secretary supports the First Minister and the Cabinet. The current incumbent is Sir John Elvidge who took over from Sir Muir Russell in 2003. Sir John Elvidge is the most senior civil servant in Scotland and heads the Strategic Board of the Scottish Government.

The Permanent Secretary is a member of the Home Civil Service, and therefore takes part in the Permanent Secretaries Management Group of the UK Civil Service^[15] and is answerable to the most senior civil servant in the UK, the Cabinet Secretary, for his professional conduct. He remains, however, at the direction of the Scottish Ministers.

[Edit] Executive agencies

Main article: Executive agencies of the Scottish Government

In order to deliver its work, there are 17 Executive Agencies established by Ministers as part of government departments, or as departments in their own right, to carry out a discrete area of work. These include, for example, the Scottish Prison Service and Transport Scotland. Executive agencies are staffed by civil servants.

There are two non-Ministerial departments that form part of the Scottish Administration, and therefore the devolved administration, but answer directly to the Scottish Parliament rather than to Ministers: these are the General Register Office for Scotland and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.