lord provost

{{Short description|Head political office of major Scottish cities}}

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{{Scottish Politics}}

A lord provost ({{langx|gd|Àrd-Phrobhaist}}) is the convenor of the local authority, the civic head and the lord-lieutenant of one of the principal cities of Scotland.{{cite book |last1=Maver |first1=Irene |title=Heads of the Local State |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-15672-1 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351156721-3/scottish-provost-since-1800-tradition-continuity-change-leadership-local-self-government-irene-maver |chapter=The Scottish Provost Since 1800: Tradition, Continuity and Change in the Leadership of ‘Local Self-Government’|pages=29–46 |doi=10.4324/9781351156721-3 }}{{cite book |last1=McConnell |first1=Allan |title=Scottish Local Government |date=2004 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-2005-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6aDowAEACAAJ |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Garrard |first1=John |title=Heads of the Local State: Mayors, Provosts and Burgomasters since 1800 |date=28 November 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-15670-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJ1ADwAAQBAJ |language=en}} The office is similar to that of a lord mayor.{{cite book |last1=McCrone |first1=David |title=Who Runs Edinburgh? |date=2022 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |jstor=10.3366/j.ctv32vqmsc |isbn=978-1-4744-9830-2 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv32vqmsc}}{{cite book |last1=Lynch |first1=Peter |title=Scottish Government and Politics: An Introduction |date=2001 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-1287-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZ66wAEACAAJ |language=en}} Only the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirling{{Cite web |title=Civic leader now known as ‘Lord Provost’ to mark 900th anniversary of Stirling |url=https://www.stirling.gov.uk/news/civic-leader-now-known-as-lord-provost-to-mark-900th-anniversary-of-stirling/ |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=Stirling Council |language=en}} and Glasgow have a lord provost; other Scottish local authorities have provosts or convenors, which are similar offices to that of a mayor (as a presiding officer of the local council, not as a chief executive of a local authority).{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Robert J. |last2=Trainor |first2=Richard H. |title=Urban Governance: Britain and Beyond Since 1750 |date=5 July 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-87656-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkQrDwAAQBAJ |language=en}} Perth (as a city) previously termed its civil leader a "lord provost", but from the Second World War onwards has preferred the simple term Provost of Perth.

A lord provost has a higher status than a lord mayor in other parts of the United Kingdom.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} They are ex officio the lord-lieutenant for that city, in accordance with section 1 of the Lieutenancies Act 1997, which allows the city council to choose its own representative for the monarch.

The lord provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow enjoy the style of "The Right Honourable" before their office, but not their names.

Permission to use the title is granted to a city by the monarch, under the royal prerogative, acting on the advice of government ministers.