We arrange for international delegations to visit the Scottish Parliament and look at their model for democratic governance.
Examples of this are:
- A group of Vietnamese parliamentarians and civil servants visited Scotland in December 2005 to learn about how MSPs run their constituency offices. Read more.
- A Malawian MP, the Hon McJones Wellings Shaba, visited Scotland in November 2005, in a visit organised between the Scottish Parliament and British Councils Malawi and Scotland. He spent time with MSPs observing parliamentary procedure, as well as meeting civil society organisations.
We also arrange or advise on MSPs’ trips overseas.
The Establishment of the Scottish Parliament...rest stays the same.
Study tours to Scotland are initiated by our overseas offices.
The Scottish political landscape changed in 1999 with the establishment of a Scottish Parliament. Scotland had been governed by the Westminster Parliament in London since 1707, when the Act of Union merged Scotland with England and Wales to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
After the merger, Scotland continued to have its own legal and education systems, its own church and a strong sense of national identity. Attempts to form a Scottish Assembly with limited powers in 1978 were unsuccessful.
It was only after a referendum in 1997 that devolution became a reality.
The 1998 Scotland Act established the Scottish Parliament and gave Scotland the power to legislate on a number of issues, which are referred to as devolved matters. These include education and training, law, arts and sport – all areas that the British Council works in.
The Scotland Act also specified certain powers that would be reserved to Westminster, such as defence, foreign affairs and national security.
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