Executive Government

Abstract

All three countries now display an executive government with a combination consisting of a First Minister, usually a Deputy First Minister, ministers and junior ministers. Despite original differences the executives have developed as institutions with many similarities. The basic nature of the Scottish Executive was prescribed in the Scotland Act 1998 as an Executive whose members would be the First Minister, other ministers, junior ministers and two Scottish Law officials. Following the formation of the SNP administration in 2007 the name, the Scottish Government, replaced the Scottish Executive, although a change was not made in the 1998 legislation until 2012. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 also specified that there would be an Executive Committee consisting of a First Minister, a Deputy First Minister, and other ministers. The legislation after the St Andrews Agreement in 2006 confirmed that with the restoration of devolution an executive committee would continue, but with some changes to its mode of operation. The nature of the Welsh executive was initially very different. In 1998 the Welsh Assembly was created as a single body with no formal division between executive and legislative powers. The Government of Wales Act 1998 prescribed an Executive Committee of the Assembly with an Assembly First Secretary and Assembly Secretaries. Although decision-making technically rested with the Assembly, in practice powers were delegated to the First Secretary and through that office to Assembly Secretaries (Osmond, 2000).KeywordsExecutive CommitteeCollective ResponsibilityCoalition GovernmentSpecial AdviserMinority GovernmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.