United Kingdom Yearbook - 2000

BRITAIN AND ITS PEOPLE
Table 4.1: Population
Population Population Population
at 30 June 1998 density change
(people per 1991–98 (%)
sq km)
Cities
Aberdeen 213,070 1,146 –0.9
Dundee 146,690 2,257 –6.1
Edinburgh 450,180 1,718 2.4
Glasgow 619,680 3,541 –1.9
Least densely populated areas
Argyll and Bute 89,980 13 –3.9
Eilean Siar a 27,940 9 –5.0
Highland 208,300 8 2.1
Orkney Islands 19,550 20 –0.1
Scottish Borders 106,300 22 2.1
Shetland Islands 22,910 16 1.6
Scotland 5,120,000 66 0.3
Source: General Register Office for Scotland
a
Formerly Western Isles.
(25.7%); and a second question, on the
Parliament’s tax-raising powers (see p. 24),
was also supported, by 1,512,889 votes
(63.5%) to 870,263 (36.5%).
In the first election to the Parliament, in
May 1999, 129 Members of the Scottish
Parliament (MSPs) were elected for a fixed
four-year term: 73 MSPs for single-member
constituencies and 56 MSPs representing
eight regions, based on the European
parliamentary constituencies, each with seven
members. The latter were allocated so that
each party’s overall share of seats in the
Parliament, including the constituency seats,
reflected its share of the regional vote. Under
the ‘additional member system’ of
proportional representation (PR), each elector
had two votes: one for a constituency MSP
and a ‘regional’ vote for a registered political
party or an individual independent candidate.
The Labour Party, which has traditionally
done well in elections in Scotland, became the
largest single party, with 56 MSPs (see Table
4.2), winning 53 of the 73 constituency seats,
including nearly all those in central Scotland.
The Scottish National Party is the second
largest party, with 35 MSPs. Most of its seats
came from the ‘top-up’ PR system, as did all
the 18 seats won by the Conservative Party,
the third largest party in the Parliament.
Responsibilities
The Scottish Parliament’s responsibilities
include health; education and training; local
government; housing; economic development;
home affairs and many aspects of civil and
criminal law; transport; the environment;
agriculture, fisheries and forestry; and sport
and the arts. In these areas, the Scottish
Parliament is able to amend or repeal existing
Acts of Parliament and to pass new legislation.
The Parliament is meeting initially at the
General Assembly Hall in Edinburgh’s Old
Town. A new permanent site for the
Parliament is planned at Holyrood, at the
other end of the Royal Mile. The area is in the
historic centre of Edinburgh, and the previous
Scottish Parliament met from 1640 to 1707 in
Parliament House on the Royal Mile. The new
building is expected to be completed by the
end of 2001.
The Scottish Executive is headed by a First
Minister, normally the leader of the party able
to command majority support in the
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