– in the Scottish Parliament at on 26 November 2014.
Stuart McMillan
Scottish National Party
2. To ask the Scottish Government what arts and culture events it has planned for the West Scotland parliamentary region. (S4O-03732)
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government is not directly planning arts and culture events in the West Scotland parliamentary region. Indirect support for arts and culture events, however, is provided through public bodies such as Creative Scotland and VisitScotland’s event directorate, EventScotland, which are supporting arts organisations and venues that hold events in the region.
Stuart McMillan
Scottish National Party
Does the Cabinet secretary agree that locations such as Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire, with their rich cultural and music scene, would be excellent locations to host more events? Will the Scottish Government assist in promoting both Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire as locations to help to showcase Scotland’s wider cultural offering?
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish National Party
Indeed. As part of the homecoming celebrations throughout the year, events are taking place all over Scotland. That is also the case in relation to the St Andrew’s weekend and the winter festivals.
The member makes a good point about showcasing particular music in different areas. I hope that the regular funding that has been announced of £600,000 for three years for the Beacon arts centre in Greenock—from 2015 to 2018—will also provide opportunities for music, theatre and arts in the member’s region.
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Question 3, in the name of Jackie Baillie, has been withdrawn. A satisfactory explanation has been provided.
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.
