Preparing to study one in Scots government (8)
I believe the answer is:
readying
'preparing' is the definition.
(I know that preparing can be written as readying)
'study one in scots government' is the wordplay.
'study' becomes 'read' (synonyms).
'one in scots' becomes 'yin' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'government' becomes 'g' (abbreviation for government).
'read'+'yin'+'g'='READYING'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for readying that I've seen before include "Coming into state of preparedness" , "Preparing" , "Getting prepared" .)