Governance Matters- The Environment and Governance in Scotland

Scottish Environment LINK and its member organisations have long been involved in policy development in Scotland and have contributed to the development of the methods and processes of government – our governance. At the same time we have played a part in the discussions of the constitutional structures of government. As Scottish politics enters another period set to be dominated by constitutional debate we will continue to work in all three fields – but in this paper we seek to turn attention once more to issues of governance. We review our experience of the methods and processes in the legislative, executive, judicial and civil branches of government in Scotland over the years since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 – and present our conclusions and recommendations to the rest of the Scottish policy community.