Explain the role of a Cabinet Secretary in Scottish government

Introduction The government are MSPs who are members of the biggest party/parties in parliament. At the moment we have a minority SNP government. This means that all government posts are taken by SNP MSPs. Government ministers work in the departments of state in order to make sure that the laws that are passed by the Parliament are put into place – they are there to run the country. They also come up with ideas for new laws that should be passed.

The Scottish Cabinet The Cabinet are the government ministers in the highest posts, who are ultimately responsible for the main departments like education and health.

Decision Making Cabinet Secretaries are responsible for important decisions that have to be taken in their departments. For example the Justice Secretary in 2009 (Kenny MacAskill) was responsible for the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Leading their department Cabinet Secretaries are responsible for leading their departments and making sure that all Bills passed by the Parliament are carried out. For example the Education Secretary is John Swinney, it is his job to make sure that the SQA is doing all that they can to make the new qualifications a success. He is in charge of overseeing the changes the SQA are making to qualifications now that the Unit Assessments are going to be removed. It is up to him to decide on time frames for getting things completed and to listen to the concerns of parents and teachers.

Shona Robison is the Scottish Health Secretary, and it is her job to make sure that the department does all it can to work towards the Scottish government policy of “2020 vision”.

New policies and ideas Cabinet Secretaries have the power to put forward new policies and idea for their departments. For example, Fergus Ewing as Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs may have an idea about a new policy to support organic farming, which he could lead and put to the Parliament.