Key Information
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Scottish Education Department
Parallel form(s) of name
- The Scottish Education Department
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1872-c2007
History
The Scottish Education Department was formed from The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 when responsibility for schooling in Scotland was taken from the Church of Scotland. It was originally called the Scotch Education Department, was a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, and had its offices in London. In 1885 the department became a responsibility of the new ministerial post of Secretary for Scotland, under whom the Scottish Office was set up.
In 1918 the department was moved to Edinburgh and the name was changed to the Scottish Education Department. The Secretary for Scotland became the Secretary of State for Scotland in 1926. The department was renamed the Scottish Office Education Department (SOED) in 1991, and the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department (SOEID) in 1995.
With devolution in 1999 the new Scottish Executive set up the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) to oversee school education whilst the Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department – later Enterprise Transport and Lifelong Learning Department (ETLLD) – took over responsibility from the former SED for further and higher education. In May 2007 the new Scottish National Party government abolished the departments within the Scottish Executive.