A former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has become just the third person to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Scottish Public Service Awards.

Dr Alison Elliot was presented with the award at the Scottish Parliament in December. She said: “I think the award will be one of the things I am most proud of because it is for public service. That is really the heart of what I’ve been trying to do for the last 30 years and I feel hugely privileged to have found myself in positions where I can exercise that.”

Dr Elliott has been a member of the Christie Commission looking at the delivery of Scotland’s public services, convened the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, and chaired the Land Reform Review Group whose report laid the groundwork for this year’s Land Reform.

For the church, she has served as elder and session clerk at Greyfriars Kirk, spent 12 years on the central committee of the Conference of European Churches, and was Convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Nation committee. In 2004 she became the first woman to serve as Moderator, and the first Elder for over 400 years.