Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 3 September 2020.
Jamie Halcro Johnston
Conservative
The Cabinet secretary is aware that Audit Scotland, among others, repeatedly raised the precarious financial situation that Scotland’s higher and further education sector faced this past year. It is clear that those institutions will be essential to Scotland’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, and the use of that sector to deliver training and school programmes is welcome. Can the cabinet secretary guarantee that no further cuts will be made to the core budgets of Scotland’s colleges and that they will be adequately resourced, not only to provide additional responsibilities but to address the underlying problems in the sector?
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.
