Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 26 November 2014.
Alex Johnstone
Conservative
It has been revealed that Creative Scotland has removed all permanent sources of funding for the Sound festival, which is based in Banchory. That means that it would appear that there is now no on-going Scottish Government support for any music festival taking place between Edinburgh and Lerwick. Does the Cabinet secretary understand my concerns about the regional allocation, which seems in this case to support a central belt bias at the expense of the north-east?
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
