Structure of the Scotland Office

The Scotland Office is one of the leanest Departments in Whitehall. Its functions are divided between the offices in Dover House in London and in Melville Crescent in Edinburgh. It contains two policy divisions. The Edinburgh division advises on all reserved matters of home, social, industrial, economic, energy, environment and transport policy for their actual or potential impact on Scotland. It is also responsible for the executive role exercised by the Secretary of State on elections to the Scottish Parliament and the operation of the Boundary Commission for Scotland in its work on reviewing parliamentary constituency boundaries. The London division is responsible for the operation of the devolution settlement, the UK legislative programme, relations with committees of the UK Parliament and reserved matters of defence, international relations and national security. The Edinburgh and London divisions are each headed up by a deputy director. The office also has a Ministerial private office, press office and a finance and adminstration section. The Scotland Office works closely with the Office of the Solicitor to the Advocate General, which provides legal services in Scotland to United Kingdom Government Departments.

The Scotland Office does not directly employ any staff. Staff are seconded from other government bodies, mainly the Scottish Government and the Ministry of Justice. Here is a chart showing the organisational structure of the Scotland Office (PDF, 44kb).

You can find out more about the staff in the Scotland Office in our annual report (PDF, 813kb).

Our management board

The Director of the Scotland Office is responsible for overseeing the delivery of the Scotland Office's objectives as set out in our business plan.

For the financial year 2010-11 the Director of the Office is also an Additional Accounting Officer (AAO) within the overall responsibility of the Accounting Officer of the Ministry of Justice. His responsibilities cover both the Scotland Office and the Office of the Advocate General.

The Offices have a Joint Management Board that oversees both organisations; the Director of the Scotland Office chairs that Board. This Board meets regularly and considers a wide range of issues, from the overall complement of the Offices to the budgeting allocations within the Offices.

Read the edited versions of the JMB minutes:

Edited version of the minutes from the November 2010 JMB (PDF) (36kb)

Edited version of the minutes from the May 2010 JMB (PDF) (192KB)

Edited version of the minutes from the March 2010 JMB (PDF) (44kb)

Edited version of the minutes from the January 2010 JMB (PDF) (151kb)

Edited version of the minutes from the November 2009 JMB (PDF) (129kb)

Edited version of the minutes from the September 2009 JMB (PDF) (168kb)

Edited version of the minutes from the May 2009 JMB (PDF) (484kb)

Edited version of the minutes from the January 2009 JMB (PDF (192kb)

The Board's non-executive member is an official of the MoJ.

In addition, the Joint Management Board has two sub-committees:

• Audit committee
• the OAG Management Group dealing with operational matters within the Office of the Advocate General