ABSTRACT
The pace of evolution of governmental institutions is not necessarily the same as that of party political institutions. After three devolved Scottish Parliaments, things have changed unimaginably in the party and electoral landscape. There are still thirty-two single-tier local authorities, fourteen out of fifteen area health boards, public corporations like Scottish Water and Calmac, and state-funded universities. Audit Scotland, an important creation of devolution, audits the entire system. The main obvious changes a Scottish Government (SG) without departments in place of a Scottish Executive with them, and all-Scotland police and fire services have been natural non-partisan developments. The one major accretion of a policy area has been of railways infrastructure and franchising in 2005. New institutional forms of civil administration at central and local level in Scotland were created from London, including the Scottish. The big bang reorganisations have been of a single Police Scotland and a single Scottish Fire and Rescue service in April 2013.
