Matt Smith was the Scottish Secretary of UNISON (1993 - 2010) and Treasurer and member of the STUC’s General Council. He served as STUC President in 1999 / 2000. In 2004 he was awarded the OBE in recognition of his contribution to trade unionism.

Matt is a member of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, and an Executive Member and Honorary Fellow of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry. He sits as a Justice of the Peace in North Ayrshire as a member of the Justices of the Peace Advisory Committee for North Strathclyde. Until recently Matt was a member of the Ayrshire Economic Forum. He is a Director of Unity Enterprises.

Over the years Matt has served on a number of organisations. He was a member and Vice Chair of the Broadcasting Council for Scotland. He served two terms on the Committee on Church and Nation of the Church of Scotland, and currently is a Trustee of the Scottish Churches Industrial Mission. He served on the Boards of both the Scottish Local Government Information Unit and the Centre for Scottish Public Policy. He was a member of the Scottish Advisory Committee of the Equal Opportunities Commission. He served as a lay member of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh).

Matt was very much involved in the campaign to establish a Scottish Parliament, serving on a range of bodies in that connection. He was as a member of the (McIntosh) Commission on Local Government and a Scottish Parliament, and recently served on the Calman Commission on the future of Scottish devolution.

He served as an elected Councillor and Dean of Guild in the former Stevenston Town Council and was a Parliamentary Candidate in 1979.