Scottish local government was re-organised in 1995 and elections were held to choose councillors for the 32 new regional authorities. Councillors are elected from small wards with each ward housing an electorate of a few thousand people. The Scottish Councils are responsible for administering council tax and over £5 billion of expenditure. The 1999 Council election results are below.

Table 1: Overall state of the parties across 32 local authorities.

Labour Party	549 Council Seats
Scottish National Party	204 Council Seats
Liberal Democrats	154 Council Seats
Conservative Party	111 Council Seats
Other Parties	12 Council Seats
Scottish Socialist Party	1 Council Seats
Independent Candidates	190 Council Seats

Table 2: Who controls each Council authority?.

The Labour Party controls:	City of Aberdeen, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, City of Edinburgh, Fife, City of Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, Renfrewshire.
The Scottish National Party controls:	Angus Council.
Independent Candidates control:	Argyll & Bute, Highland, Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles.
No single party takes overall control of the following councils:	Aberdeenshire, Scottish Borders, Clackmannanshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Dumfries and Galloway, City of Dundee, Falkirk, Moray, Perth & Kinross, East Renfrewshire, Stirling.