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The thesis also examines The Scottish Office's implementation of distributive environmental policy towards the voluntary environmental sector through the policy instrument of the Special Grants Environmental Programme (SGEP). The study reviews the main themes of the literature on public policy implementation and applies five specific variables (arising from that review) to the empirical case-study findings contained within the thesis, in relation to the implementation of the above policies. From the analysis of empirical data, it is argued that the implementation of the case-study River Purification Board's regulatory environmental policy was becoming progressively more formalised during the early 1990s. Factors - both internal and external to the case-study RPB - which contributed to this increased level of formality are identified and discussed. From the analysis of empirical data, the thesis further argues that the implementation of The Scottish Office's distributive environmental policy was also being placed on a more formal footing during the early 1990s. It is contended that a fundamental reason for the formalisation of the implementation process in this policy context related to the Conservative Government's broad policy objective of rationalising its funding of the voluntary sector in general. On the basis of the empirical case-study findings, in relation to both the regulatory and distributive environmental policies, the thesis concludes that there is no one 'best' way to implement public policy. 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