The main changes that have happened in St Andrew's House since I have worked here have been going from separate offices to large open plan rooms, the departments were also shuffled about a lot to cope with the growing numbers of staff. The introduction of IT also made a big difference. Today everyone sits at their desks with their main form of communication being the email. When the typing pools were still around it would be a sociable event when you went to the pool, people would chat and catch up with the gossip. However it was a lot slower getting anything done as documents were passed back and forth with amendments.
The Christmas Fair, that now appears in Princes Street, used to be placed in front of St Andrew's House, the big wheel included! It did liven things up although it could get noisy at times.
A few security incidents have happened while I have worked here. Tony Blair was visiting Scotland and myself and Donald Dewar went to meet him at the airport. I was contacted by St Andrew's House warning me that the building had been invaded by Tommy Sheridan, this was before he was an MP. He had barged past security and headed to the fifth floor where he refused to leave, protesting against the wrongful conviction of a number of people. I then had to warn the Prime Minister that the press may be asking his opinions on the situation!
During the week, Tuesday to Thursday, the ministers would usually be in Westminster and the building used to be extremely quiet. I was working in the minister's room as it was nice and peaceful when I was called by security to the main entrance. The building had been surrounded by students protesting against student loans. They were demanding to speak to Donald Dewar, but as nobody was there I had to speak to them instead, to much disappointment of the students!