Devolution, and the consequent advent of Scotland's first Parliament in nearly 300 years was one major factor in the Institution's decision to create its first permanent Scottish office. At the time the decision was described officially as "an unequivocal response to the implications of devolution for Scotland's policy, environment and structures."

That response has been delivered to meet the demands of the new Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive ... and it is important to realise there is a very clear distinction between Parliament and Executive, contrary to the established practices of Westminster.

The Scottish Parliament which was voted in during May 1999 and which formally assumed its powers on July 1 1999 is a unique institution. There are 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (known more commonly as MSPs). For the first time in UK constitutional history, this is a Parliament elected with a substantial measure of proportional representation. Of the 129 MSPs, 73 represent specific Scottish constituencies which parallel those used in Westminster elections except that the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands which have one Westminster MP have two MSPs. The remaining 56 MSPs are described as "list" MSPs elected from eight regions to bring the overall distribution of seats within the Scottish Parliament into proportion with the share of the votes cast at the election.

This system, as it was intended, has resulted in some unusual outcomes. First, as everyone anticipated, no one party gained overall power and the current Scottish Executive is therefore a Labour-Liberal Democratic coalition. Secondly, while the Conservative party has had major problems in Scotland at the last two general elections, it has a substantial representation in the Edinburgh Parliament through proportional representation voting. And, thirdly, the minority parties also did comparatively well with, for example, the UK's first Green Party Parliamentarian elected.

The powers which the Scottish Parliament exercises are very clear. Matters which are the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament are called devolved powers, matters which remain with Westminster are called reserved powers. The Scotland Act defines what is reserved not what is devolved, thus giving the Scottish Parliament a general competence except where its powers are specifically limited.

The main devolved powers are:

• Health
• Education
• Local Government
• Economic Development
• Tourism
• Transport
• Arts, culture, sport, heritage
• Agriculture, fisheries, forestry
• Criminal and civil law
• Environment

Unlike Westminster, the Scottish Parliament is a single-chamber. It therefore possesses no revising second tier, and its procedures accordingly involve extensive consultation both ahead of, and during, the passage of legislation. This affords interested parties such as ICE many major opportunities to make our views heard and our presence known and our policies understood. Plainly, most of this work is done directly towards the Scottish Executive both through seeking to influence future legislation by continuing contacts with both Ministers and civil servants on an ongoing basis, and by responding to Executive Consultation Documents and Papers as they are issued.

It is also becoming increasingly clear that this route can be used for continuing direct contact with MSPs and their parties, as well as more formally with the Executive. It is important to make the distinction between Executive and Parliament because, again unlike Westminster, the Executive exercises only a limited control over the Parliament's agenda. Business is scheduled by a cross-party committee, chaired by the presiding officer (the equivalent of the House of Commons Speaker) and time is guaranteed for business from minority parties, committees and individual MSPs. Each MSP has a right to introduce three Private Members' Bills per Parliament - in Westminster of course individual MPs have to win a ballot to get time for a Private Member's Bill.

The committees of the Scottish Parliament also exercise much greater power than at Westminster. There are two kinds:

• Statutory Committees which look after matters like standards, petitions or EU directives;
• Subject Committees which shadow ministerial portfolios. These Subject Committees combine the roles of select and standing committees, in that they can conduct enquiries and hold the Executive to account as well processing legislation in their fields. They are expected to act independently of the Executive, and can initiate legislation: they are therefore a vital point of contact for anyone wishing to influence the Parliament.

Against that background, a considerable amount of ICE's effort in building contacts with the Scottish Parliament is spent on direct individual contact with MSPs. This is helped by the fact that the Scottish Parliament is very IT conscious and active. The Executive places all its scheduled activities on the web site, and all documents can be accessed through the site. Likewise all MSPs are contactable through e-mail, and there is even a common formula for the e-mail address for each individual. It is also very much simpler to meet MSPs within the precincts of the Scottish Parliament than is the case at Westminster as proceedings are kept very informal and, within reason, organisations and their representatives are given considerably free access to MSPs within their offices and the Parliamentary buildings. This is a very valuable form of contact, although it is time consuming. This contact is also helped by the fact that the Scottish Parliament works reasonable business hours and does not indulge in practices such as continuing debates on into the small hours of the morning.

MSPs have shown themselves to be, in the main, very approachable and very receptive to authoritative information, advice and opinion from established and authoritative bodies such as ICE. Building on the very sound foundations established in the Scottish Parliament's first term, prospects for the next four years beginning in 2003 are looking very encouraging.

One of the most positive achievements of the past few months has been the establishment of a Cross-Party Parliamentary Group on Construction. This represents a very major step forward. The Scottish Parliament has a very limited number of Cross-Party Groups (with only 100 back bench MPs, there is plainly not all that much room to manoeuvre) and to have secured one on the Construction Industry opens a large number of potentially important doors.

First, it does allow the Construction Industry through its various constituent institutions and organisations direct access to the Parliament committee structure on an all party basis. Second, and probably more important, it allows us to do so on an industry basis which does, of course, adhere to current ICE policy of seeking to make common cause with our peer groups.