Catalogue description Home Office: Scotland: Domestic Entry Books

After 1782 the Home Secretary customarily exercised responsibility for Scottish affairs, though much of the detailed administration was delegated to the Lord Advocate.

In 1885 a Secretary for Scotland was appointed to carry out functions of the Home Secretary in Scotland where they were readily separable. Functions excepted from this transfer related principally to naturalisation, extradition, and the inspection and regulation of factories, mines, explosives, vivisection and reformatory schools. Further powers were transferred later, including the licensing and inspection of anatomy schools in 1887 and the regulation of reformatory and industrial schools in 1908, though the appointment of inspectors of reformatory and industrial schools was reserved to the Home Office until 1920. The Scottish Office had a small office in London as well as its main office in Edinburgh and from 1926 it was headed by a Secretary of State for Scotland, charged with responsibilities over a wider field than that covered by the Home Secretary in England and Wales. Functions relating to health sections of the Factory Acts were transferred to the Scottish Board of Health, working under the Secretary for Scotland, in 1921, and in 1949 responsibility for the administration of civil defence in Scotland was transferred from the Home Office to the Scottish Office.