The Scottish Government

The Scottish Government publishes over 1,000 items each year. Decisions on what is published and publication design is devolved to the departments. Current corporate policy is for all of the publications to be available on the Scottish Government website. In addition the majority of them are also available as paper publications from Blackwell's Bookshop (details below).

Crown Copyright

The material on this site is subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. It may be reproduced free of charge in any medium or format for research, private study or internal use within an organisation. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context.

Where any of the Crown copyright items on this site are being republished or copied to others, the source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged. For any other use of this material please apply for a Click-Use Licence on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website, or by writing to OPSI at The Licensing Division, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ Fax: 01603 723000 or e-mail: OPSI Licensing.

Permission to reproduce Crown Copyright material does not extend to any material on this site which is the copyright of a third party as is the case with some photographs. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned. The copyright status of items can be checked in advance of use by contacting newswebsite@scotland.gov.uk.

The Scottish Government encourages users to establish links to the site.

For further information on Crown copyright policy and licensing arrangements, see the guidance featured on OPSI's website.
Finding a publication

* The website currently holds full-text publications from 1997 onwards. From 2001 all publications are available in both HTML and PDF formats. On the website publications are listed under Publications and Consultations. The Publications archive allows searching by date, subject, topic and keyword. The consultations are searchable by Current and Closed consultations.
* In addition the Scottish Government Information and Library Services produces an annual register of bibliographic details of Scottish Executive publications which is available in paper and on the website.
* SE publications 1998
* SE publications 1999
* SE publications 2000
* SE publications 2001
* SE publications 2002
* SE publications 2003
* Details of Scottish Government publications are also available on UK-wide official publications listings such as UKOP

Bibliographic control

* Bibliographic details for publications, including ISBNs, can be obtained from both print and PDF versions of the publication and from the annual register of publications. Current corporate policy is for an ISBN to be allocated to all paper publications.

* HTML versions of publications may differ from print/PDF versions for example in exclusion of graphics/tables etc. References made using the HTML version should ensure that HTML referencing guidance is followed to minimise confusion.
* Where possible HTML versions will contain references to the ISBN of the Print/PDF version to ensure the relationship is clear.

Coverage of the publication listings

* The website publication pages and related listings do not include Bills, Acts, Statutory Instruments or papers presented to the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Government other than those prepared by the Scottish Government. This material is available either through the Scottish Parliament website or the OPSI web site.
o Scottish Parliament
o Acts(OPSI)

* Publications from Scottish Government or other related, but external, bodies are also not usually available on the website. A useful site for identifying other government/official sites and their publications is: http://www.direct.gov.uk/

Publications are available from BookSource

Publications, for both individuals and trade are available from BookSource,APS Group is responsible for selling and distributing Scottish Government publications and makes them available to the public via BookSource, whose details are:

BookSource
50 Cambuslang Road
Cambuslang Investment Park
Glasgow G32 8NB

Telephone: 0845 370 0067

Fax: 0845 370 0068

Email: scottishgovernment@booksource.net

Postage is payable on some publications published by The Scottish Government, you can see the price list here. The public library discount is available on all priced publications published by The Scottish Government.

Loan copies

Loan copies of publications may be available from your organisation's library service or your local public library via the National Library of Scotland, the British Library or other co-operative inter-library loan schemes.

Consultation Paper Responses

When a consultation exercise is completed, all consultation papers and their responses are available for viewing in the Scottish Government Information & Library Services at F Spur, Saughton House, Edinburgh. Enquiries regarding viewing can be directed to individual departments or to the Library on 0131-244-4556.