ONE of Alex Salmond’s biggest publicity coups as First Minister - rebranding his administration the ‘Scottish Government’ - was already being planned by civil servants before he entered office, it has emerged.

The SNP leader was widely credited with driving the change, which became public when the sign on the Scottish Executive building at Edinburgh’s Victoria Quay was changed overnight.

However files released by the National Records of Scotland from 2007 show that, while Mr Salmond did want the name changed, officials had started the ball rolling months earlier.

Civil servants had long regarded the “esoteric term” executive as confusing, obscure, unhelpful for democracy and “quite impenetrable” for people whose first language was not English.

“Purely for professional communications reasons we need to change our name,” they told new SNP ministers, noting the idea had been floated with officials in London “for some months, and certainly well before the Election”.

For the first two terms of devolution, the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition was known as the devolved Scottish Executive, rather than the bolder-sounding Scottish Government. 

The cabinet minutes of 5 June 2007 show that Mr Salmond wanted change.

They record: “The First Minister said that he had noted a variety in the terminology being used to describe the Scottish administration. In general, and where appropriate, the term Government should be used rather than Executive.”

A fortnight later, the Government’s top official, the permanent secretary Sir John Elvidge, presented a memorandum to the cabinet in which he personally - and forcefully - argued for a name change.

Capitalising on the shift in mood, Sir John’s paper said:  “We have known for some time that the title ‘Scottish Executive’ does not promote understanding of what we do or who we are.

"It is an esoteric term, requiring a technical understanding of the term 'Executive' e.g. 'the executive branch of government', to understand it. 

“In conversation, a gloss is usually required, along the lines of 'that's the devolved government of Scotland'. It is also quite impenetrable for people whose first language 'Executive' is not a commonly used word internationally to denote government. 

“The Executive is often confused, even among professional commentators, with the Parliament. The obscurity of our title makes that more likely and our corporate communications are, also, made more difficult. So, purely for professional communications reasons, we need to change our name. 

“It is worth noting that Ministers in previous administrations often used terms other than ‘Scottish Executive' when referring to the Scottish Government.

"The First Minister has already made clear at Cabinet that we should use the term Scottish Government consistently, for a range of purposes.

“The right name for us is 'the Scottish Government’.

"It is what we are, and what we do. It is easy to understand and needs no glossing, except to put in the UK context, where that is necessary.”

He added: “There are no legal barriers to changing the name. The use of the term ‘ Scottish Ministers’, for legal purposes, will continue.”

Sir John’s paper said the new identity would need to be applied to stationery, signage, digital communications, websites, publications and adverts generated by the administration.

“We will minimise costs by letting stocks run out wherever we can - it will not be a big bang, expensive rebranding but a prudently managed transition. 

“Some costs will be incurred anyway, because of the Executive's new organisational structure, but these are difficult to quantify. 

“Major amongst the 'hard' costs will be the replacement of signage at key Executive locations. These costs - for Edinburgh only - are estimated at £20,000. We will include Gaelic in these changes (The Gaelic for 'Scottish Executive' translates back into English as 'Scottish Government', confirming the lack of meaning in our current title). 

“We estimate that the whole process, including implementation, could take around six weeks and cost less than £100,000.

"A topical comparison might be with the Olympics 2012 logo, which cost £400,000 just for the logo, excluding any implementation costs or the re-branding of a large organisation.”  

He said the change of name would also mean “a change of brand” based on the Saltire instead of the Royal Coat of Arms used by the Scottish Executive.

“We are already using the designation ‘Scottish Government’ informally.

"We can not run two names in the long term, and we will, anyway, be challenged soon on whether we have changed our name or not. Informal usage will, however, prepare the ground over the summer.

“The timing of an announcement depends on practicalities (how quickly we can get the necessary ‘shop window’ changes ready to go live at launch); our assessment of how much of a news story it will be and how much we want it to be; and how we can use it to set the tone of the administration.

“I suggest that we make the change at the beginning of the new session in September, rather than squeeze it now when we already have so much going on and so much planned. It will set the time for the administration’s first full Parliamentary year. We will plan carefully the communications around this, both external and internal.

“We have not carried out a formal consultation. Official contacts in London are aware we are thinking about this, since we have discussed it with them on and off for some months, and certainly well before the Election. I don’t think we need to consult the UK Government formally but I do suggest we give them some hours notice of our intention to announce the change.”

The cabinet minutes also record Sir John said the current name “led to substantial misunderstanding of the identity of the organisation, which was unhelpful both for Ministers and for democracy”.

“While it would be naive not to expect some presentational difficulty through criticism of cost, £100,000 compared very favourably with similar re-branding exercises carried out by other large organisations.”

In discussion, ministers said the story would need to be “explained proactively to reduce the risk of misrepresentation by the media”, and parliamentary standing orders would need to be changed, as the term ‘Scottish Executive’ was always used in parliamentary questions.

The change was made public in early September, when the sign outside Victoria Quay was replaced, with Mr Salmond defending the “common sense change”.

He told the press at the time: "The overwhelming majority of people had no idea what the term 'executive' meant. Obviously the Scottish administration is the government. It is regarded as the government across a range of issues, and it should act like a government."