Good service

I do not know from where Tom Reilly (Letters, 13 August) draws his knowledge of the Scottish civil service. My memories of the Scottish Office suggest that the staff will be experienced and
capable for any changes.

The current administrators have to deal with the changing political balances as governments change in London and Edinburgh. Structures change with political imperatives and always will.

I do not know if the underlying thought is that Edinburgh does not provide the range of international exposure to
constitutional change. If so, this is incorrect.

I recall the fisheries administrators from London and
Edinburgh depending on a
Scottish Office economist for support in Brussels on UK entry to the EEC as it then was.
(London had no such animal as a fisheries economist.)

Thereafter there was continuous involvement of Edinburgh-based staff in discussions in Brussels. In my time the Scottish Office provided the agricultural attaches for Copenhagen, the Hague, Washington and Brussels as well as other secondments to the FCO and the Commission.

The brave new world may present different challenges to the Scottish civil service as to everybody else.

Like everybody else, regardless of the outcome of the
referendum, they will adjust.

LV McEwan

Kirkhill Road

Edinburgh