Quick Quiz
What is this man’s name?
What is his occupation?
This is the Scottish
Parliament.
In which city is it found?
What political party does this logo
represent?
List as many political parties as you can.
THE HISTORY OF
DEVOLUTION IN
SCOTLAND
Intermediate Modern
Studies
Government and Decision
Making in Scotland
History of Devolution
What will I learn?
The history of the Scottish
Parliament.
What a referendum is.
What ‘devolution’ means
The results of the 1997 Scottish
referendum.
The Queen officially opened the Scottish
Parliament on 1st July 1999 after nearly 300
years of British rule. In order to understand
the importance of the Scottish Parliament in
meeting the needs of the people of Scotland
today, we need to understand the history of the
country.
A Brief History
For hundreds of years Scotland’s history
was linked to bloody battles with England.
Before 1707 Scotland was an independent
country.
What do we mean by and
independent country?
In 1707 the Act of Union was signed by
Scotland and England. It stated that the
United Kingdom of Great Britain be
represented by one and the same parliament.
This meant that Scotland no longer passed it’s
own laws and all laws were now made by the
British Parliament based in Westminster.
WESTMINSTER
1997
Labour party became government and
promised the people of Scotland a
REFERENDUM. On the 11th September
voters were asked ‘should there be a
Scottish Parliament?’ 74.3% of the
electorate voted yes.
When the government
asked the people to
vote on a particular
issue. For example
‘should Scotland have
it’s own parliament?’
1998
On 19th November, Scotland Act passed by UK
parliament. ‘There shall be a Scottish Parliament’
1999
Parliament opened and there was the first
election.
TASK
Q1-3 ON
P.7
Despite the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland
maintained her own culture and identity.
In pairs, put together a spider diagram which gives
examples of how Scotland has a very distinct culture from
England the rest of the UK.
Scotland’s unique culture
Turn to p.7 and the examples
to your diagram
DEVOLUTION
Many Scottish people still want Scotland to be
part of the UK but simply wanted Scotland to
have more control and power to decide and
implement laws affecting Scotland. This is
called devolution.
The power to do things moves closer to the
people who are affected. The Scottish
Parliament was opened in 1999 to give
Scotland more control over it’s own affairs’
DEVOLUTION
Many ________people still want Scotland to be
part of the UK but simply wanted Scotland to
have more _______and power to decide and
implement laws affecting Scotland. This is
called devolution.
The _____to do things moves closer to the
people who are affected. The Scottish
Parliament was opened in 1999 to give
Scotland more _______over it’s own affairs’