About the Scottish Government
We were established in 1999, following the first elections to the new Scottish Parliament. At that point we were known as the Scottish Executive, but this changed in 2007 to our current title – the Scottish Government. We are led by a First Minister, who is nominated by the Parliament and who in turn appoints Scottish Ministers to the Cabinet.
It's our aim to create a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish through continuing sustainable economic growth. To measure our success, we've created Scotland Performs – a website that shows all our strategic objectives, national outcomes and national indicators.
Everything we do is centred around five main objectives – to make Scotland:
- Wealthier and Fairer - enabling businesses and people to increase their wealth and more people to share fairly in that wealth.
- Healthier – helping people to sustain and improve their health, especially in disadvantaged communities, ensuring better, local and faster access to health care.
- Safer and Stronger – helping local communities to flourish, becoming stronger, safer place to live, offering improved opportunities and a better quality of life.
- Smarter – expanding opportunities for Scots to succeed from nurture through to life long learning, ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements.
- Greener – improving Scotland's natural and built environment and the sustainable use and enjoyment of it.
With an annual budget of approximately £30billion, we're responsible for most of the issues of day-to-day concern to the people of Scotland, including health, education, justice, rural affairs, and transport.
