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The National Trust for Scotland is administered by a Council. The Council's principal role is to act as the guarantor of the integrity of the Trust's operations. To this end, Council appoints the members of the Board from which it receives reports.
The Council should constitute a forum for wide-ranging debates of conservation issues which would inform the Trust's future approach to the subjects discussed. The Council includes a President, Vice-Presidents and up to 50 members (including the Chairman) who are elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting. Other members of Council include representative members of local authorities and other organisations related to the work of the Trust. In the light of a recent Governance Review's recommendations, it was decided that the Board of the Trust, which has taken the place of the former Executive Committee, should be specifically entrusted with responsibility for the active operational management of the Trust in all of its aspects, and the power to make decisions on behalf of the Trust, subject to a requirement to report regularly to the Council on its stewardship. In practice this means that the Board is responsible for determining in accordance with any principles laid down by Council, the strategies, policies, targets and objectives of the Trust and for taking major decisions on such matters as acquisitions and disposals, with guidance from the Council where it can be obtained within the timescale involved with contributions as appropriate from the advisory committees. The Board is chaired by the Chairman and consists of nine non-executive members and four executive members.
The Board works in close consultation with the Trust's Senior Management Team, providing it with advice and guidance, and monitoring its performance. The Senior Management Team has been given clear responsibility, once a policy or target has been approved, to determine how best it should be implemented, subject only to providing the Board with progress reports as necessary.