QUANGO Watch - Survey of non-elected public bodies in Scotland, 1995

Background:

Nearly 500 non-departmental public bodies in Scotland were surveyed in late 1995, having been identified from publications such as HMSO's 'Public Bodies' and 'Scottish Regions'. One organisation questionnaire was sent initially, then, if the organisation fitted the 'quango' profile, a further organisation questionnaire was sent together with board member questionnaires. A QUANGO is a Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation.

Principal Investigators:

• Alice Brown and David McCrone, Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh (now the Institute of Governance at the University of Edinburgh
• Graham Atherton, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Edinburgh University Data Library

Description:

The replies were entered into two databases; one for organisations and one for board members. The databases contain details of over 250 organisations and approximately 600 individual members.

The criteria for inclusion in the database are that the organisation receives public funds which it also disburses and that it's board members are not elected.

The Data Library had set up a website for the project in which both databases were searchable online through a WAIS search engine. The data is now archived offline.

Time Dimensions:

Cross-sectional (one-time) study:

Source of Data:

Primary data collection carried out by the principal investigators.

Documentation:

ASCII text readme file, a short bibliography, plus printed output in three-ring binder (fourth floor storage).

Data Format:

ASCII text data files

File Storage:

Written to CD-ROM 12/11/02.

Data Access:

This dataset can be downloaded from Edinburgh DataShare via: http://hdl.handle.net/10283/25
The Data Library has archival responsibility for this dataset.

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