The Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish Office

Abstract

The Secretary of State for Scotland has been called ‘Scotland's Prime Minister’. He is Scotland's representative in the Cabinet (although other Scots or Scottish MPs can be members – Sir Alec Douglas-Home (now Lord Home) was Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary while a Scottish MP). The Scottish Secretary's department is the Scottish Office, with its headquarters in St Andrew's House, Edinburgh. There is also a small office in Whitehall at Dover House, which serves as a centre for liaison with Whitehall departments, and as a base for the conduct of parliamentary business. The ministerial ‘team’ at the Scottish Office usually consists of the Secretary of State, a Minister of State, and three Under-Secretaries of State. The junior ministers are given ‘subject briefs’. In 1982 these were: Minister of State (Agriculture and Fisheries; Highland and Islands affairs); Under-Secretaries (Health and Social Work; Industry and Education; Home Affairs and the Environment). If the Scottish Secretary is Scotland's Prime Minister, these men comprise his ‘Cabinet’. But is he really a Prime Minister in any meaningful sense? The title has been fondly used by Scottish Secretaries in the past, but no doubt with a heavy dose of wishful thinking. It might perhaps be an attempt to compensate for the rather minor status of the office in the Cabinet, where, for example, key committees sometimes do not include the Scottish Secretary. Seen from Downing Street, there is only one Prime Minister – the man or woman in No. 10.